


The Way of Honor and Blood

by Aly_Kazaam



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adorable Baby Yoda (The Mandalorian TV), Adult Cal Kestis, Alternate Universe - Ben Solo Doesn't Turn to the Dark Side, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, Armitage Hux Has Feelings, BAMF Finn (Star Wars), BAMF Leia Organa, Badass Rey, Ben Solo Needs A Hug, Bendalorian!, Canon Rewrite, Captain phasma is a bad bitch, Costume Parties & Masquerades, Demisexual Ben Solo, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Poe Dameron/Finn, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff and Angst, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force Dyad (Star Wars), Force Ghost Obi-Wan Kenobi, Force Visions, Force Visions (Star Wars), Gay Poe Dameron, Hurt/Comfort, Hux loves Tico, Kissing, Language Kink, Love Bites, M/M, Mandalorian Ben Solo, Mandalorian Culture, Mando'a, Merrin and Cal are Rey's parents, Naked Male Clothed Female, Neck Kissing, Nightsister Culture (Star Wars), Nightsister Merrin - Freeform, Nightsisters (Star Wars), Nudity, OC stormtrooper characters, Parent Han Solo, Planet Dathomir (Star Wars), Poe is unapolagetically gay, Rey Needs A Hug, Rey and Ben are not problematic in this story, Rose Tico Deserved Better, Scavenger Rey (Star Wars), Sexual Tension, Slow Burn, Space Battles, The First Order Sucks, The Force Ships It, War, Young Ben Solo, Young Leia Organa, evil bad not cool bad, it's a sotry about war people are gonna die, look mom no hands!, most of them are terrible people, pansexual Rey, they even treat each other like crap
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:00:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 51
Words: 162,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23212165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aly_Kazaam/pseuds/Aly_Kazaam
Summary: After being left for dead in the Outer Rim, Ben Solo is found by the Clan of Two and is given something he thought was impossible: the freedom to choose a life he wanted to live.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Rose Tico, Poe Dameron/Finn, Rey/Ben Solo
Comments: 289
Kudos: 318





	1. The Great Betrayal

The visions were getting worse.

He could hear the cackle of an unstable light saber blade glowing red as the sun of Dothomir singing its death song into the dark; shining its foreboding crimson light, illuminating a black mask reflecting the lightsaber's red light along three silver lines that bordered the visor of the villainous piece of armor that reminded the old Jedi of his father. Images of Darth Vader flashed in bits and pieces before his mind’s eye until the Force showed Skywalker the final image of its prophecy.

The face of a young man, with raven black hair sticking to his sweat ridden brow, his gaunt pale face twisted in a fierce snarl and nothing but wrath emblazoned his dark brown eyes.

Ben.

The old Jedi master jolted from his meditation in his hut, the golden fire that once burned earlier in the night simmering down to a vermillion smolder.

Another shade of red. Another foreshadowing of the Dark Side’s desire for his nephew.

“Force, what do I do,” Luke Whispers to himself, his weathered face buried in his hands. The cold steel of his prosthetic hand soothing his tired skin. Dread slithers into his heart like strangle vines, the fear of what his nephew would become evolved into terror and hatred for the Dark Side of the Force. A hatred that allowed the Darkness within him to grab hold of his heart and rip his rationality away from him for the only solution Luke could think of to save the Galaxy was to kill his own flesh and blood.

It was the only way.

“Letting fear consume you, you are,” a voice, rasping with sheer antiquity, deadpanned from beside the old Jedi master.

Luke turned to his right to see the glowing blue presence of the Ghost of Master Yoda, one of the Old Republics strongest and ancient wielders of the Force. A once living fountain of wisdom, the now ascended creature sat on the cot beside his final student, dangling his short legs off of the edge almost in a childish manner as he gazed into the dying embers that long ago would have felt warm on his scaly skin. But that was a long time ago, when his body was made of flesh and bone.

“Disappoint me, you have, Master Skywalker! Train you to strike down innocent children, I did not! ...Hmmph!”

It had been decades, but Master Yoda still managed to make Luke feel like a foolish child, and make him reflect on his thoughts sheepishly. Perhaps to the mysterious creature, Luke still was a child.

The old green bastard was right! Killing Ben would be a disgrace to the Jedi way. And possibly a decent into the maddening darkness within. And Maker help the Galaxy if Luke were to take a turn to the Dark side of the Force.

“A strong bond to the Force, Ben Solo has. A great destiny ahead of him as well. Do not fear the boy, Skywalker, or he will be consumed by darkness, and your fault it will be.”

Luke ran his cybernetic hand down his beard, pondering his master’s words.

“Master Yoda, I’ve thought of everything. All possible ways to free him of this will bring him great pain, harm even, it isn’t the Jedi way.”

“The Jedi way, it is not, Skywalker. A different destiny, Ben Solo has.” Yoda leans close to Luke, his ancient eyes full of wisdom still glimmer after all his years as a part of the Force, “And protect your nephew, you must.”

The urgency in his Master’s voice caused the old Jedi to tremble slightly.

“And how do I do that?” Luke’s voice was laced with bitterness. His nephew, the son of his best friend. The boy for the last eight years he tried to help harness the ways of the Force, only to watch the poor child grow into a despondent man teetering on the edges of the Dark Side of the Force.

The room grew quiet for a moment as Yoda thought over Luke’s words, and felt his warring emotions about the Solo boy. The green elder huffed out a “Hmm!” before sliding off of the cot.

“Follow the Force, Skywalker. To Mandalore, your answer will be.” The ancient Jedi master rasped as he hobbled out of Luke’s hut, slowly fading away into the Force with each step. “The Force be with you, may it be.”

“And to you as well, Master.”

By the time Luke wished him well, Yoda was gone. And he was overwhelmed with a current in the Force so strong it became difficult to breath. The old man believed this was a Force Nexus but as he concentrated on the power from the northern horizon, Luke realized this was no place. This was a signature of someone. And that someone was in the Mandalore system!

**

The intelligible words that began as whispers in the dark reaches of his mind were now bellowing screams and roars so loud Ben felt as if his skull would split apart. Images of fields of rotting corpses flashed behind sleeping eyes, and his body covered in their blood as he stood under a black sky. He stood over a man in a black tunic, with hair of ash brown curls mangled and burning, his limbs smoldering on the earth close by. With yellow eyes rimmed with red, man with skin bubbling from the fire Ben could not see gazed into his own and with a hoarse, pained breath he whispered.

“Follow me.”

Ben Solo started from his cot, his face dripping with sweat and his breath ragged, as he saw his Uncle Luke standing over him in his small tent. The features of his family and Jedi Master were solemn and almost pained as he spoke up, “C’mon, Ben, we have to go.”

“Uncle-” Ben caught himself before he continued, “Master Luke, where?”

“I’ll tell you when we are off planet. But we have to hurry”

The master and apprentice stole away into the night to a war worn X-wing fighter, and soon after escaped the safety of the atmosphere and into the dangerous unknown of the black mottled with the diamond flakes of distant stars.

After unknown hours in hyperspace, Mandalore was in view through the transparisteel panels of the X-wing’s cockpit as the old battle cruiser slipped out of the hyperspace. Upon the sight of the planet Luke and Ben felt the near suffocating pressure of the force signature that emanated from the planet’s surface.

It was light, and it was pure.

An embodiment of innocence in the Force.

The light of this strange Force signature eased into Ben’s mind and spirit; the light casting away the shadows that had plagued his soul since he was a small child. Only a blessed silence rang through the young Jedi’s mind and heart. Ben had never felt so at peace.

“Alright, kid,” Luke looked back at the seat behind him at his nephew. Everything about the young man seemed to relax, and it brought a pang of guilt shooting through the Master’s heart like an arrow. Luke ignored the feeling in his chest as he readied the X-wing to enter Mandalore’s atmosphere. “prepare for landing.”

‘I’m unsure if I can go through with this.’ the old Jedi thought to himself as he pointed the ship’s nose down to the planet’s surface.

‘What must be done, you must do.’ Yoda’s voice whispered in Luke’s heart through the Force, ‘Wherever Ben Solo will be, the Darkside will follow. Free the child from the Jedi and Sith, you must!’

Luke pursed his lips in a thin frown to fight the growing quiver that shook them. He held back shining tears that welled in his blue eyes. For the sake of his nephew he would not let them fall.

Ben began to feel an air of uncertainty surrounding his uncle. He wished to ask what was troubling him, but a small voice within urged him to ignore his curiosity. The young man quietly bit his lip; much like his mother when she would raise an eyebrow over the hair-brained schemes of his father.

This made Luke’s decision even harder to make.

The planet Mandalore’s surface shimmered due to the desert’s white sands, the desolate results of an ancient Jedi war. The presence of so much white in Ben’s vision felt appropriate as the power of the Force overwhelmed his senses with the Light. In the distance, large cube shaped ziggurats speckled the barren landscape. The Mandalorians favoring angles and hard edges over soft curves; something Ben remembered reading in the Grand Republic Library as a child on Coruscant. 

He was eighteen now, and though it seemed like ages, it had been only eight years since Ben was sent away to train with Luke at the New Jedi Temple to better channel the Force under the guidance of his uncle.

But hard as he tried, no amount of training and meditation could not quiet the whispers of the Sith that echoed in his soul, and Ben’s burst of uncontrolled anger were becoming more common, more dangerous. 

Ben Solo feared that he was becoming his grandfather. That was until this moment, when the Light banished all trace of the Dark from his mind, on this strange desert planet born from blood, war and honor had Ben ever felt so serene. If he had the power of choice, Ben would abandon his Jedi training and make a way of life here, no matter how hard he would struggle and strife to live.

“Ben,” Luke’s voice sliced through the Jedi apprentice’s train of thought like a beskar blade. His teacher’s tone took him by surprise; it was hollow and low with remorse.

“Master Skywalker,” Ben replied, unaware of the formality in which he spoke to his uncle.

Luke sighed, his shoulders slumping slightly as he exhaled the shaky breath that seemed to escape from deep within his soul. “I know I have been hard on you. But I need you to know that I have always loved you as if you were my own son.”

“Uncle,” Ben stepped forward toward Luke, his teacher, his only family for the last eight years, “what’s wrong?”

“Ben...” Lukes voice cracked, “Ben, I’m so sorry”

His nephew stepped closer still, walking into his fate, “I-I don’t understa-”

A wave of green light fanned though the air, cutting across Ben’s chest, burning through his Jedi robes and into his skin beneath. Despite the plasma blade of Luke’s lightsaber cauterizing the wound, blood stained the beige tunic a dark murky red. Before the young man could comprehend what had happened his uncle, Ben Solo’s Jedi master, plunged the green blade of the saber into the right side of his chest. Obsidian eyes met a sea blue stare streaked red as a thin stream of tears fell down the old Jedi’s sullen cheekbones.

Ben hiccupped a short sob, cut off by his collapsing right lung. 

“What did I do wrong?” he fought to speak out with all of his strength, only for the words to seep out from his lips in the form of a whimpering whisper. The breaking of his heart hurt more than the burning blade that ran through his chest. A single tear fell down his pale face.

Losing his balance, Ben fell into his uncle’s arms as the old man extinguished the lightsaber’s blade. Luke embraced his nephew and student one last time, pouring all the love and regret he felt over his decision to do what he had done into it.

“It’s not what you’ve done, kid. It’s what you would do.”

Exhaustion and grief washed over Ben in a gentle heavy wave that allowed him to let go. He slid down gently to his knees before falling limp on the white Mandalorian sand on his side. The dying heir to the Skywalker legacy turned his head up to the sky, a blue so pale it seemed white, as he tried to focus on the one thing in his final moments that brought him solace after years of turmoil.

Silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After TROS I was pretty heartbroken and came up with this idea. 
> 
> Any notes in future chapters will be translations for mandalorian text. I hope you enjoy this story as much as I have been writing it


	2. The Clan of Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben is saved and found by the Clan Din Djarin and he makes a name for himself.

Hours later as the sun drew close to the cube scattered horizon, a lone mandalorian marched through the white desert. He carried on his back a small creature as he marched through the unforgiving pale sands, now dyed a rusty orange as the sun began to set, reflecting its golden dying rays off of his beskar armor, that covered his body from head to foot.

The creature, strapped to his back with an old tattered red cloth, had green hued skin and long pointed ears that sprang out from it’s small head. It clung to its guardians shining pauldron with small, three digit clawed hands, blinking its large brown eyes wearily in the setting sunlight; eyes that seemed to carry centuries of wisdom behind them.

As they reached the clearing ahead, a huddled form lay in the sands unmoving except for the body’s black hair that rustled in the light winds of the Mandalorian evening. The warrior and the alien passed the crumpled mass and the Mandalorian pressed on. The Galaxy was a cruel place, and death being one of the kinder truths she whispered to every being who resided within her stars.

The creature; however, took great interest in the body the bounty hunter chose to ignore, and squeezed it’s tiny fingers into it’s caretaker’s pauldron and back desperately.

“Leave it,” the warrior said behind his T-visor helmet, “there’s nothing we can do.” his voice was cold and matter-of-fact, as if learned from a long life of survival. The child like creature lowered its large eyes and conceded.

Until...

...Bump bump...

Long ears quickly twitched and perked up as the creature began cooing and whining in its makeshift pappoos. The mandalorian continued to ignore the green child’s non-verbal pleas from his back.

...Bump bump...

The seasoned warrior was suddenly not gaining further ground in his pursuit to continue walking. Before he realized it, his feet were no longer on the ground as he was suspended in the air by the strange cosmic magic of his companion, only to be pulled back to the body on the sandy ground and then pushed down into the sand chest down by a pressure he had no strength to fight off. The mandalorian struggled to lift himself off the ground to no avail as the small creature crawled quickly to the huddled, and bloody, figure beside him.

...Bump bump...

The child placed its green clawed hands on the body and closed its eyes to concentrate. The silence was deafening, the sun began to sink behind the horizon while the child focused on forces the Mandalorian still had yet to understand after caring for the little one for the last fourteen years. He watched his companion with bated breath in the silence around them.

Without warning the black haired youth gasped loudly into the dusk, sitting up quick as a sarlacc reaching for an airborne meal, grasping at his now healed wound on his chest; scarred over in thick pale tissue.

The child’s large ears lowered as it stumbled from side to side in exhaustion before the young man, now very much alive, caught it in his arms despite protests from the bounty hunter subdued in the sand.

“Did you...” the boy, barely a man asked the green child in his arms that he cradled gently like an infant, blinking in surprise, “did you do this?”

The child did not answer with words; it’s response was a yawn and a snuggle into the arms that held him. Taking comfort in the tattered and burnt robes as it fell asleep. The young man held the small creature in his arms furrowing his brow in deep thought while the Mandalorian finally pushed himself upright and kneeled close to the other, his hands slowly reaching out for his slumbering companion.

“He always falls asleep after...moments like this.” the armored man stated as the boy passed the sleeping child to him. “I don’t know what it is, I stopped questioning it long ago.” the mandalorian looked down at the alien in his arms before turning to the nameless one beside him, “what’s your name, kid? And frankly, what are you doing dying out here in the deserts of Mandalore? You look like you’re from the Inner Rim.”

“I was from the Inner Rim,” the young man’s voice had grown deep and hoarse with dehydration. As he coughed the Mandalorian reached for a canteen attached to his utility belt and handed it to him. The other drank a few sips of the warm water and wiped his mouth with his dirty sleeve before he continued to speak.

But the words never came. Instead loud sobs escaped his lips as tears rained down his long face. The Mandalorian shook his head and shrugged his shoulders with an audible sigh. He understood this child’s plight; the loss, the abandonment, the fear of death as it stares into your eyes uncaring of your desire to live. Of all the people and creatures in the Outer Rim, the bounty hunter was possibly the only one who truly understood the tears this man shed shamelessly, and he would not utter a word of judgment, only reaching out with a gloved hand to the shoulder of the grief stricken boy in an attempt to console him, no matter how futile.

“C’mon, foundling, my ship is nearby. Let’s get you to shelter.”

“...Foundling?” the boy questioned as he wiped the tears off of his face with his palm. The mandalorian, having learned from years of dealing with liars and thieves, picked up the hint of understanding in his question.

“I’m taking you in. The kid seems to like you. I’ll ask you again, what’s your name, foundling?”

The young man lowered his eyes as if to find his name written in the sand beneath him. He placed a hand to his chest, now scarred over from his injuries. The tears he shed moistened the dried blood on his tunic which had now stained his fingered a deep red. He thought of how alone he felt in this moment regardless of the saving grace of the small tribe who found him. 

He wondered if his father Han had felt this alone before taking the surname he was given.

“Talyc...my name is Talyc Solus” 

The warrior nodded in understanding. The boy already knew the tribal language of his people.

“My name’s Din Djarin. C’mon, Talyc. This is the way.”

Talyc stood up from the ground shakily, standing tall with a renewed sense of self. His whole life, he was forced into roles he did not believe he was worthy of. Whether it be the whispers he heard in the dark telling him he was destined for power, or his family urging him to represent the Skywalker lineage. Ben Solo cared not for any of it, he never did, and now he rose from death’s clawed grip to meet two members of a race that believed in honor and family to the highest degree, but also believed in freedom to live their lives however they wished so long as their honor remained intact. 

Freedom, a once foreign concept, was so clear and obtainable now.

Din Djarin saw the potential warrior inside the man who rose as if reborn from the tears of the sniveling lad moments before. Talyc’s brown eyes were hard as beskar when he answered as if born to live the life of a Mandalorian.

“This is the way.”

**

A few months had passed and young Talyc had shown great promise in his combat skills. He was also quite the cunning young man. Djarin was beyond impressed with the young trainee as he caught onto all forms of combat and weapons skills. Even as a pilot Talyc’s talents were exceptional, almost otherworldly, as if the warrior knew the course he embarked before initial takeoff. 

The seasoned mandalorian also noticed the growing connection between Talyc and the child, whom the young warrior referred to as vod’ika; making Djarin’s heart swell with pride every time he heard the term of endearment. Though his foundlings did give him a start when he had seen the two sitting beside each other in deep concentration about five feet above the ground. Clearly the two shared the strange power the Mandalorian did not understand.

The Mandalorian in training had explained to Din Djarin that the power the child and he shared was called “the Force”, that it was the universal currents unseen that brought life to the Galaxy. That some individuals were bonded to this mythical essence and could manipulate the material world around them by harnessing that connection. 

It all sounded like a bunch of absurd space sorcery in all honesty, but Din saw the happiness in the child’s eyes when the two ‘force users’ as Talyc referred to themselves would train together in their odd, unique way. The clan head had no complaints on the matter. 

And Force or no Force, Talyc was a man with a fierce spirit. The fire that lit in his dark eyes during training was wild but controlled. The old Mandalorian could not help but feel as if the foundling was hiding behind that fire something pained and lonely.

In time, Talyc had explained that before Djarin and the Child had found him in the desert, he was an apprentice to the Last Jedi, Luke Skywalker. The later shook his head, unaware of the history of the Jedi knights and the Clone Wars that eventually led to the Galactic Civil War that tore the Galaxy apart thirty years ago. After what Djarin felt was a long winded history lesson of the centuries old Republic Senate, which Talyc explained that the Mandalorian people had never been a part of; he also added that after the Galactic Civil War, the last Jedi Luke Skywalker had taken him and other ‘padawans’, as he called them, to learn to harness the power within.

Talyc had described that one way to use the Force was to channel it during battle, which peaked the old Mandalorian’s interest in the otherwise boring space magic his foundling had been disclosing here and there during their time together. The clan leader asked his foundling of he used it during their sparring matches now. But to Din’s surprise, Talyc told him ‘no’. 

The older man pondered what kind of warrior Talyc would be if he did use these strange powers during a battle to his advantage. But alas, the only time Talyc claimed he used the Force in any way was in the presence of the Child, to meditate together, to ‘play’ in a way. The Child seemed to control better the timing in which to use his strange power, to which Djarin was relieved, he did not want a reenactment of the arm wrestling incident to happen again.

After a time Talyc had explained that the reason he was found in the desert was because his teacher of the Force, the Jedi way in particular, had struck him down because of a war Talyc had been battling in his heart and mind for most of his life. He explained the voices he heard and his bouts of rage that would consume him.

“Do these ailments still plague you?” Din Djarin asked with great concern for the boy he had grown to care deeply about like a younger brother. 

Talyc thought about his time with the Clan Djarin, he thought about the day they found him and how that was the last time the voices shrouded his heart in darkness. He quietly shook his head unable to provide a reason why the darkness left him.

The Mandalorian nodded thinking thoughts he never spoke aloud to his foundling brother.

After a day of training in the desert, the three misfits were sitting around a fire with an unknown animal field striped and roasting on a stick. Once the creature was ready to eat Djarin watched the Child swallow his portion whole leaving no time to chew his food, while Talyc picked off small pieces and ate them slow, making as little noise or mess as he could while eating.

Clearly the high class manners of the Inner Rim would never leave him, and the Mandalorian hoped that the boy’s fiery spirit would stay with him as well.

“Talyc.”

Talyc raised his brown eyes to his leader’s covered face. The flames of the fire in the night casting a glow on his shining beskar’gam of gold and orange.

“I think you may be ready.” Djarin began to speak to Talyc in a tone that was solemn and stoic, “but you need to understand; by becoming one of us in armor and in spirit, you are a warrior and brother first, and a man second.”

Din Djarin walked from the fire and up into the ship. He was gone for a few moments before walking back down the gangplank and back to the fire, carrying with him a black helmet crudely painted with a long green triangle on each side and the border of the signature T-visor was painted a deep red. Talyc recognized the red as his leader’s color and the green triangles his vod’ika’s long ears. And his heart felt full as his clan head continued.

“The moment I place this on you, the life you lived and suffered before being found can be left behind. The armorer once told me we reforge our soul into a new one when we don our armor, the old soul dying, burned away by the Mandalorian flame that created it.

“But this new soul is fragile as it is strong, your face behind the mask is to be unseen by others, you are a symbol of your people more than a separate entity. You can only remove the mark of your people when you are alone. This” Djarin holds the black helmet out to Talyc after sitting down beside the foundling, “is forever who you are, this is a symbol of your life and honor. It is your life and honor.”

Talyc reached out and placed a rough hand, hardened by the harsh deserts he had become a part of, on the black helmet Din was offering him. The thought of shedding away Ben Solo, and letting go of the life before this moment brought a pang of sadness in his chest. 

Could he forget? 

He thought of his mother and father, he knew deep down they loved him, that they never abandoned him. Luke even told him before that horrible moment that he loved Ben as if he were his own son. And Chewie; out of everyone, the wookie adored Ben regardless of his powers with the Force or his struggles with the Darkness within him. 

What if fate brought them back into his life someday, could he still be a Mandalorian and a Skywalker? 

Despite the pain he felt in his heart, Talyc felt the wings of freedom spread out behind him as he imagined how liberating it would be to let go of Ben Solo. The bastard son of the Force, who was cast away as, what he felt, a burden. At least that’s what the snarling whispers used to tell him before finding Din Djarin and the Child. 

Talyc exhaled a quivering breath, nervous about the path that was offered to him. For once Ben Solo had a choice and he decided.

He decided to finally be no one. To be the made up name that still would always remind him of his dear father, as solus was just another word for ‘one’. 

The foundling looked up at his companion, his leader, his brother and gave his answer,

“The my life and honor it shall be.”

Din Djarin nodded at Talyc before pulling off one of his armored gloves and reaching to his belt for the beskar knife on his hip. Talyc noticed his olive skin and was quietly taken aback, he had never seen any part of his clan head’s skin exposed to the elements. Din reached out with the unclothed hand and Talyc gave his own hand to his brother. 

The mandalorian pulled back Talyc’s cloth sleeve and brought the edge of the knife across the foundling’s palm, earning a quiet wince from the young man as the skin split open with the glide of the sharp beskar edge. Djarin then ran the blade across his exposed flesh in the same manner before grabbing Talyc’s bleeding hand in his own. All while the Child watched on with tired eyes.

The flow of two small crimson rivers rolled down their forearms, drip dropping into the sand beneath them in a small puddle

“Ner tal, gar tal. Te tal be Manda'yaim. _My blood, your blood. The blood of Mandalore._ ” Djarin spoke in his father tongue.

“Ti ibic tal, Ni Kelir kemir te ara be ijaat. _With this blood, I will walk the way of honor._ ” Talyc answered, his voice solid as beskar.

Din Djarin nodded once more before dipping his gloved hand in the puddle of blood and sand, streaking the blood across Talyc’s eyes in a straight line. He dips his hand in the small crimson pond once more and marks the foundling again, placing blood soaked fingers on the center of Talyc’s brow and bringing them straight down to the tip of his chin.

Talyc looked into his found brother’s T-visor that reflected the painted blood on his face. His dark eyes ignited with a new sense of self. Putting away the lost boy who fell ill with the voices of the dark, the tired child plagued by the nightmares of his grandfather’s reign of the Galaxy. He now embraced the man who would fight tirelessly for his tribe, who was hardened by the hot desert sands he traveled for the last unknown months.

No longer was he the Prince of the dead planet Alderaan.

No more will he be the Jedi son of a rebel smuggler.

Din Djarin placed the black helmet over Talyc’s painted face, the cold beskar tickled the initiated mandalorian’s large ears that peaked from his wild black locks. This was the final right to the Mandalorian initiation ritual. The foundling's soul was reborn!

The Force flowed though Talyc’s body in a way he had never felt before, it was untamed, it was fierce, but it was neither light nor dark, just righteous and good. It surged through him and from him, causing the campfire to roar before rapidly dying to cinders. The Force felt as if it became a true extension of his heart and soul. He looked up at the large moon above shining down on him, casting its light upon him like a celestial baptism celebrating his rebirth. 

This was freedom in it’s purest form. And Talyc Solus would risk death before becoming once again shackled to the demands or expectations of his former birthright!

**

Lightyears away under a different star studded sky in another distant desert, a young girl feels in her heart a shift in something she is yet to understand. So liberating it brings tears to her eyes in the lonely AT-AT that she huddles up in on the cold desert nights of her reluctant home planet. The feeling shouts freedom into the Galaxy and calls to her.

Freedom once was her mother’s warm embrace, and her father’s kisses on along her temples.

Freedom died the moment that ship flew off into the sky when she was five years old. 

All she knew now were the chains of the scavenger’s life; as well as this warm feeling in her heart that she would hold onto with everything she has for as long as this cruel life will allow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beskar - Mandalorian iron (strong stuff!!)
> 
> Beskar'gam - traditional mandalorian armor
> 
> Talyc Solus - "Bloody One"
> 
> Vod'ika - little brother
> 
> Ner tal, gar tal. Te tal be Manda'yaim - "My blood, your blood. The blood of Mandalore"
> 
> Ti ibic tal, Ni Kelir kemir te ara be ijaat - "with this blood, I will walk the way of honor."


	3. Black Beskar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two halves meet in the desert.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! Updates may be frequent in the next couple weeks as the factory I work at has shut down due to the covid-19 pandemic. I typically write ahead on paper before I proofread and type everything on a word processor, and am quite a few chapters ahead. 
> 
> I'm also on tumblr under AlykazamFanfiction and Alytology dont be afraid to hit me up. 
> 
> And now back to what I have given as a nickname "The Bendalorian"

Ten years had passed since Talyc became a full fledged Mandalorian. But only two years since he decided to embark on his journey alone. Both Din Djarin and Vod’ika encouraged him to travel his own path and so he did. Hunting heads to pay for fuel and provisions; exploration to pay for peace of mind. Fuel and rations were currently low, hunting for a bounty would have to do.

According to the star maps on screen, the nearest habitable planet that was a known and suitable safe haven for fugitives was Jakku

Desert planet Jakku.

The infamous junkyard planet, Jakku.

...Perfect...

It had been quite some time since “Black Beskar” Talyc Solus had made planet fall on the scavengers’ haven. But the treasure trove of bounties that hid away there was not the only thing the mandalorian had any interest in. 

A few years ago, a couple years before Talyc decided to journey on his own, he had started to have strange dreams of a scavenger; covered head to toe in white ragged cloths that covered their skin from the flailing sands and unforgiving sun. Every time be woke from these dreams, the crushing loneliness he felt would squeeze his lungs and he could not breathe.

The most recent one of these dreams he had was just a few days ago. The dream started the way it always did, Talyc would stand in the sand dunes unarmored and vulnerable in the bright midday heat but he never felt the sun. Walking through the hot sands in his bare feet felt like trudging through frost, and his wild black hair still as the harsh winds blew through his body; he was a ghost of the desert.

After traveling the desert for what seemed like ages, Talyc always reached the same place, the duristeel skeleton of a decommissioned AT-AT. And on that old heap of parts always sat the scavenger somewhere on the wreckage, their tattered rags drifting haphazardly in the violent winds. He stepped closer; he always stepped closer, until he could see the shrouded figure who haunted him for hundreds of nights in better detail. 

The mandalorian had watched this person scavenge for scraps or sulk alone for the last five years, merely a child coming of age when the dreams began to question his sleep, in the same desolate imperial graveyard. Talyc observed this child grow into a faceless warrior who fought fiercely for their right to survive the junkyard planet’s wrath.

But this dream was different than the others; the white scavenger sat dangling their legs out of the plucked eyes of the AT-AT’s cockpit. Their dry rotting scarf flowing and whipping chaotically in the wind, bracing their person with a long staff assembled with a mish-mash of spare parts, looking into the sky above as if waiting for it to fall down on them.

Or a ship to return from the black.

Suddenly, as if the desert winds had carried his thoughts to the lonely scavenger, they quickly turned their head in his direction and jolted with a start before they hurriedly climbed down the AT-AT. Force be damned, this vision could see him! Once they gracefully made their way down the old battle walker, the scavenger ran through the sand, silica particles splashing like water under heavy steps. Though Talyc could not see the face beneath the cloth wrappings and rags that covered the scavenger’s body, he felt the eyes of the scavenger boring into his own as they made their way closer to him.

The scavenger stopped before Talyc and circled around him in curiosity. He was a strange mirage unlike anything they had ever seen. The unarmored mandalorian stood dead still while listening to the padding footsteps in the sand, waiting for the strange dream to turn into a nightmare. The desert spawn stopped in front of the man, he could hear their heavy breaths as they looked up at him. Such a small creature the scavenger was, their head stopped at his chest. 

It was not the petite stature, or the invasive interest of the white scavenger that took Talyc’s breath away. 

The scavenger reached out slowly with a linen wrapped hand, as if he would fade away into the desert winds if they came to close. The mandalorian’s sharp intake of breath was more of a hiss than a gasp as their rough calloused hand, small like the rest of them, touched Talyc gently on his fair cheek, tracing calloused fingers along his brow and jaw line in an attempt to remember his face with as many senses as they could before he disappeared. It had been years since someone touched his face in such a way, not since before...

The scavenger pulled their hand away as if their hand was burned, Talyc feared they had heard the thoughts in his head and he looked down at them. Instead, the desert spawn reached for the visor that covered their eyes, makeshift goggles made from the salvaged eye piece of an old stormtrooper helmet. The mandalorian could feel the scavenger’s desires and fears in the air as they slowly pulled the shade from their eyes.

Despair.  
A yearning for freedom.  
Loneliness.

Yes, that feeling of loneliness Talyc was familiar with for most of his adult life. More than he had suspected for there are many types of loneliness, but the scavenger’s mirrored his own. As if it was his own isolation she had felt. The deepest part of himself he hid away behind his armor ten years prior felt this. The scavenger’s loneliness was Ben’s, but their's was magnified dramatically to the point of heartbreak. The isolation and solitude undesired were unbearable to the scavenger, all they wanted was to be found by those who left them forgotten on this trash heap planet.

All these feelings flowed around Talyc and the scavenger in a melancholy dance as the child of the desert sands removed the visor from their face, revealing tanned freckled skin that surrounded amber eyes with thick dark lashes. A woman’s eyes gazed into Talyc’s from this androgynous being, possibly the most beautiful pair of eyes the mandalorian had ever seen. 

And he woke!

No longer was Talyc in the desert, but in his cold sterile cabin; furnished with only a small firm bed, a table where his beskar’gam laid spread out, and a humble wardrobe for storing the under clothes he wore beneath his armor. The mandalorian wiped the sweat that formed on his forehead in small beads before touching his face where the scavenger had placed her hand, he felt something coarse on his skin. Talyc pulled his hand away from his face to see a sight that dumbfounded him in the dimly lit cabin.

Sand.

Talyc shook away the strange dream and the eyes that peered into his. Eyes that reminded him of portraits of the past queens of the Naboo that had seen in old holobooks in his mothers personal library on Chandrila. 

“C’mon, you sentimental fool,” Talyc growled as he threw off his bedsheets and pushed himself out of his bed and over to his wardrobe, “you have a ship to land.” 

Once the mandalorian put on his clothes and pulled his armor onto his body, his armor complete once he placed the signature mandalorian helmet over his face. Ready to face the day, he walked from the cabin to the pilot seat at the head of the ship. Talyc flipped switches and turned dials before pulling a lever down as the streaks of starlight reverted back to the pale twinkling dots that coated the black. Jakku’s planet face was in view through the transparisteel panels, the desert planet’s pale orange glow from the sandy surface below called to Talyc with promises of credits and something else that drew dread from his bones. Whether it was destiny or doom that awaited him, the mandalorian was not sure.

**

Jakku’s white hot sun burned the planet’s surface below, and Talyc was granted a blast of searing heat that warped the air around him as he opened the ramp of the Mythosaur, a Kom’rk-class fighter that doubled as a transport vessel. The beast was old, having been found and salvaged from sitting and rotting on Nevaroo; the Death Watch had gladly let Talyc take the old fighter off their hands as it had been sitting since the end of the Clone Wars fifty years prior. But the beast was fierce. 

Talyc strolled down the ramp, his boots unheard over the shouts and banter of commerce happening nearby at Niima Outpost. 

The hunter had arrived, and the world around him was his prey.

The mandalorian had walked to the outpost and, as expected, the Niima denizens stopped momentarily to observe the newcomer. Their lungs froze at the sight of the mandalorian as he made his way to the center of the outpost. His brown ragged cape of heavy linen swayed to and fro with every step he took, held down from the winds by his long range rifle strapped to his back. Talyc wore two blasters on his belt, an array of daggers knives beside them, and a flamethrower was installed and hidden within his armor. 

Talyc was armored in beskar, slowly put together other the course of nine years, his breastplate being the final piece to complete the ensemble. The armor was painted black to match the now worn color of the first piece of his beskar’gam that he earned years before, but the paint was scratched and worn from the general wear and tear of his rough lifestyle. The breastplate shined dully in the desert sun, the final piece had yet to be painted but inlaid on the right side of his chest was the mudhorn skull sigil of the Clan Din Djarin. The skull laid over his old injury as a reminder of his death as a young Jedi and rebirth as a Mandalorian.

The mandalorian’s presence among the various peoples and creatures instilled fear in their hearts, he could feel it in the Force, part of him began to revel in it until-

“Watch where you’re going, Mando!” a muffled voice hissed at him as his shoulder made a hard contact with another as they crossed paths.

‘Mando’; that was not his name, that was Din’s. Talyc always disliked that word used outside of others addressing his clan head. It should not have bothered him as mando was the name of his people in the father tongue. It just felt condescending when people said it to him now that he was on his own. 

And this one, he was sure as Mustafar was on fire, was being quite insulting. His blood began to run hot with fury. He turned around to bare his teeth at the other.

“You wanna run that by me agai-” Talyc began to snarl through his armored face. This person insulted him! They touched him! All in a matter of a few seconds, and he was going to make them regret it for years. But words froze on his tongue like water on Hoth when he turned around to see what he saw, _who_ he saw.

Not even a few steps before the mandalorian, with tattered scarves flowing from her, was the scavenger in white. The staff strapped to her back, and standing firm waiting for either words or weapons to be drawn. 

“You.” Was all Black Beskar, fearless bounty hunter and known force to be reckoned with throughout the Mid and Outer Rims, could manage to mutter.

“You!?”

The scavenger placed a hand on her hip and shook her head. Talyc knew from the dream she was female upon seeing those queenly eyes, but the slight taper of her waist and curve of her hips were now obvious in the waking world. 

“Y’know, I’ve been called lots of things, but ‘you’ is hands down the worst insult I’ve ever heard,” the scavenger finished as she stepped forward to the mandalorian. Once she was inches from his face she gave his painted beskar helmet a flick with a slender finger, making an audible clank on contact.

Years of training had sharpened the edge of Talyc’s reflexes as he snatched the white scavengers’s wrist in his gloved hand. She tried to pull away from him like a wild tauntaun but to no avail. The mandalorian could feel the currents of the Force pulse violently around her as she struggled and spat out curses in all sorts of languages he was surprised to hear. Talyc held on, something in him felt that if she continued the scavenger just might learn something about herself as her Force-signature was reaching a certain breaking point he was quite familiar with.

Before the Force had a chance to break through and awaken the scavenger, the high pitched hiss of a readied blaster aimed at the two warriors and a sterile, static laced voice hollered,

“Alright, you two, what’s the problem?”

Talyc and the scavenger turned to the stormtrooper aiming a blaster rifle at them ready to shoot. The mandalorian focused his stare at the First Order soldier, so much so that somehow the scavenger herself could feel his focus emanating from him.

“Everything’s fine,” Talyc said in a way that seemed more of a command than an explanation.

‘Kriff, we’re dead’ the scavenger thought to herself, blown away at the audacity of the Mandalorian.

The white plastoid armored soldier lowered his weapon slowly, “My mistake, everything’s fine here?”

“You’ll be on your way now.” Talyc ordered the trooper again.

“I’ll be on my way. Carry on.”

And just like that the stormtrooper strolled off to likely bother someone else in the outpost. The scavenger shook her head, dumbfounded by what she had witnessed, before looking back to Talyc as she pulled her slender wrist out of his grip.

“How did you karking do that!?” a suddenly feminine voice stammered from the scavenger's wrappings.

Talyc leaned down to the scavenger’s level and drew his head close to where he believed her ear was. She smelled of grease, sweat and sand, and something the mandalorian was unfamiliar with but found intoxicating nonetheless. 

“In time, Oya’ika _Little Hunter_ , for you haven’t seen the last of me.” he teased into her ear before he pulled away and stalked off into the bazaars of the outpost.

Talyc could feel her Force signature radiating with confusion and irritation, and he could not help but smirk a toothy grin beneath his helmet as he prowled away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oya'ika - little hunter (scavenger is not a word in the current mandalorian dictionary)


	4. On the Run

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey tries to help her friends. Talyc finds a bounty.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope those who are reading this enjoy it. Don't be afraid to comment. ;)

The white scavenger stormed off to the outpost’s cantina kicking the rocks along her path in frustration over that cocky, that downright scandalous, Mandalorian! The strange characters of Niima Outpost knew better than to tease, or better yet _flirt_ , with the small but gruff scavenger simply known as Rey of Jakku! 

“The nerve of that bantha’s ass in a mask!” Rey grumbled to herself as she headed to the unobstructed entrance. 

Once she entered the doorway to the dusty provisions center that smelled of stale water, spoiled ale, and spice; she stomped to the far back table occupied by two men whose faces were covered by the tattered cloaks they wore and sat down with a huff in her steel chair.

Rey tore off the goggles and the thick wrappings that covered her face, revealing a youthful freckled and tanned face with pronounced cheekbones and full lips, light and dry from the planet’s relentless heat. Her hair was a chestnut brown and tied in three tight buns behind her head. Everything about the girl was beautiful, but was a result and reminder of the harsh life she lived. Her shapely face and lithe frame, due to living off of meager portions to survive starvation; the copper tone of her skin mottled with freckles, a side effect of Jakku’s blistering sunshine.

“I’d say you both have your hands full,” Rey harrumphed, placing her elbows on the table and leaning in towards the two men.

“Care to explain the sudden pessimism, Rey?” one of the men, with olive skin and dark brown eyes asked the scavenger. By the look of his disheveled brown curls that peaked from under the hood of his cloak and the rings under his eyes, the last few days had taken a toll on him. 

“I just happened to bump into a Mandalorian. Quite the odd one at that, told a buckethead to ‘go away’ essentially and he just...did! And he seems to be here on business.” Rey decided to omit the part when the bounty hunter caused her to flush with rage and a bit of sudden self-consciousness when he whispered in her ear through his helmet.

“Wait a minute,” the other man, with dark skin, hair and eyes interjected raising a hand, shaking it as he tried to process what he just heard. “I know we- I mean they-” he stammered before adding “ _stormtroopers_ can be a bit a dim at times. But what?”

“Easy, Finn,” the wearier of the two men said, placing a calming hand on his friend’s shoulder. He was getting loud and would bring attention to the table if he kept on.

He turned his eyes to Rey after easing Finn’s apprehension, concern still worn on his face, “now, Rey, I need you to recall as best as you can, what the mando’s headgear looked like. It’s very important.”

The scavenger leaned back in her dusty seat pondering the interaction she had a few moments ago outside with the Mandalorian. Every detail of him fresh and visible in her mind’s eye. He was very tall and broad shouldered, his armor, though scuffed and worn, was all painted black except the shining beskar breastplate with the skull of a horned beast she was unfamiliar with marked on the right side. His voice was deep and solemn through his vocoder, as if he held dark secrets on his tongue when he spoke. She had never seen the man before in her life, yet it was as if he seemed _familiar_.

“His headpiece was black, painted red around the t-visor, and two green triangles, one on each side of his head- Poe! What’s wrong?”

The man named Poe buried his head in his hands with an audible ‘kriff!’ Finn looked over to his companion with dread upon seeing the other’s sorry state and asked, “kriff!? What’a’ya mean ‘kriff!? As in bad?”

“Yes as in ‘bad’!” Poe could not keep his wavering composure when he snipped his response, shaking his hands animatedly at the table before running one of them through his wild curls.

“The mando you just described is none other than ‘Black Beskar’ Talyc Solus. He’s one of the best bounty hunters in the Outer Rim right now. If he’s the one to get a puck with Finn, BB-8, or my own holo on it, we’re doomed.” Poe spoke with a grimace while thinking about the situation at hand.

As Poe was mulling over what to do, Rey felt something. After she turned around quickly to roam her eyes across the cantina, she placed a finger to her lips to signal to her friends to keep quiet as none other than the Mandalorian they were just discussing was walking into the crowded cantina straight to the server droid at the bar. The three watched in silence as the bounty hunter leaned close to the mechanical being as if to whisper a secret, then nodding before walking away to enter a door far back in the cantina, blocked off with a old stained burlap cloth crudely nailed to the wall above, disappearing behind the flowing fabric.

“I think time’s about to run out for the two of you,” Rey whispered as they stared at the door which she knew lead to the room where shady business deals and plots were conducted in Niima Outpost. “We should make a run for it,” she added, looking back at her friends she had just met yesterday.

Truth be told, the life of Rey of Jakku was nothing short of a long string of hot boring days that blended together into monotonous years of escapades that consisted of digging through wreckage since she was five years old. But then yesterday happened. After receiving her portions for her finds, which were less than the day before despite her bringing in more fodder, she argued with Unkar Plutt until other scavengers came up to pull her away for fear of a fight to break out. The others were not wrong to drag her away kicking and shouting obscenities at the old fat bastard, as she was just about to grab her trusted staff and give the junk lord a good wallop on his greasy, sweaty head! Rey was walking about the outpost to cool her head until she found, hiding in a pile of old rags and linens, a lost BB-8 astromech droid. 

Needless to say, the scavenger coaxed the poor droid from her hiding spot and; not long after, she literally ran into a dark skinned man wearing all of the essential pieces of the white plastoid uniform unique to a First Order stormtrooper, with the exception of the soldiers’ infamous headgear. 

And she had been on down low with the droid, and the oddball stormtrooper until this morning when Poe, who could have been dashing and charismatic given different circumstances, had chased them down demanding he have his droid back. Not long after they hid BB-8, and Rey stole Finn and Poe away in the cantina they were in now.

Dare the scavenger say it, but Rey of Jakku had never had so much fun in her entire life. It was like the monochrome life she lived day after day suddenly exploded with vibrant colors of all sorts. Part of her did not want it to end so soon, so she decided for the group that she was going to help them get off planet if that meant being with her new found friends for a few hours longer. 

“We need to make a run for it. You both might want to get some help. I don’t know anyone outside of this outpost so in that regard you’re on your own.” Rey told the two fugitives as she stood from her chair replacing her head gear and readying herself for the brutal bright heat that lurked outside.

Poe stood up after pushing his seat back, his brow creased as he thought of a plan. Finn followed suit, watching his olive skinned friend wishing to know what he was thinking. Then, unprovoked, Poe slams his fist in his hands, his smile is wide and his eyes are bright saying “I got it!” startling his stormtrooper friend. He looked at his rag-tag friends nodding to himself, “I know a guy we can com.” 

“Why didn’t you say so sooner?” Rey deadpanned as they walked to the cantina’s exit.

“I was distracted,” Poe answered the scavenger but looking at Finn, giving the other man a wink before pulling the hood over his face.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Finn said to himself copying Poe’s actions more so to cover the skin darkening on his cheeks than to travel incognito into Niima’s sandy streets.

**

Talyc entered the back room to find a fidgety First Order lieutenant sitting at the table alone except for two stormtroopers standing at each side of him. The officer stood up and addressed himself as Dopheld Mitaka in a stammering voice before reaching into his pocket to reveal a single puck and placing it on the table. He pressed the small button on the side that lit up a holo image of a young man with dark skin and short dark hair with the soldier number FN-2187 above the portrait.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why am I seeking out one of your stormtroopers?” Talyc towered over the lieutenant at the small table as he chose to remain standing. 

With four soldiers guarding one First Order wimp, the mandalorian thought better than to sit down.

“T-treason,” Mitaka answered with a stuttering tremble. Talyc used the force to gently snake around the officer’s thoughts and could practically see the fear that radiated from him but also another emotion that made the hairs on the mandalorian’s neck prickle.

Despair surrounded him like the thorny vines of a rosebush.

Deals with the First Order have always left a bad taste in Talyc’s mouth and he did his best to avoid them whenever he could. This negotiation was no different than the others. His old life seemed to hang onto his heart as he remembered his mother’s distaste for the defunct Empire when he was a child, silently in awe of Leia Organa’s influence still remained with him in regards to his interests and qualms. Or was it the imperial roots of the First Order and the former’s history with the Sith that made Talyc’s stomach churn when in the presence of the galactic superpower?

The Sith, the Jedi, damn them all and their self serving ideals!

Talyc picked up the puck and began to turn to the door. “This shouldn’t take long,” he told the lieutenant, “expect FN-2187 captured and brought to this location by sundown today.”

“B-but it’s already high sun.”

“I said by sundown today. Don’t underestimate my abilities.” Talyc’s voice answered in a low growl through the quiet room before stepping to the door.

“Wait. What about the homing beacon? Surely you need it.” Mitaka suggested the tool that the Mandalorian ignored to request of the officer.

“Not needed.”

“Not...needed?”

Talyc turned to the lieutenant to tell him “I have my ways” before pushing the burlap aside to exit the room, the sour taste of bile crawling up from deep in his throat to the tip of his tongue as he made his way out of the filthy desert cantina.

Mitaka kept his back straight until the frightening bounty hunter finally left the room. He released the breath he did not realize he held and relaxed his shoulders as he slumped low into his chair.

**

Rey, Finn, and Poe slipped out of the dark cantina, the sunlight blinding for Finn and Poe as the scavenger led the men out and away from Niima. Stopping at a series of secluded rock formations surrounded by large sand dunes about a mile outside of the outpost.

“Beebee-ate,” Rey whispered in a sweet cajoling voice that did not match her character, one that would be used to coax a scared animal out of hiding, “it’s us! C’mon out.”

After a few silent seconds, one of the smaller sand dunes close by vibrated before a small white and orange droid burst from the silica, rolling about on her spherical body around the trio with joyous beeps and whistles in greeting.

Poe knelt down to the droid placing his hands on her duristeel surface inspecting for damage.

“Hey there, buddy! Glad to see you’re OK!” He beamed at his droid, giving her a tight hug. BB-8 answered his affection with more loud and jubilant beeps. “Alright, now time to com our guy.”

“How?” Rey inquired.

Poe pressed a button on BB-8 and opened a small compartment on the droid’s smooth surface, pulling out a comlink hidden inside. He flipped a small switch on the back of BB-8’s bowl shaped head next to her antennae before he spoke into the mouthpiece of the comlink.

“Spice Runner to Nerf Herder, do you copy.” 

Rey and Finn kept their eyes open for First Order troops as Poe continued sending out his message.

“I repeat, this is Spice Runner. Nerf Herder, do you copy?”

A few moments that felt like hours passed before static feedback began to crackle from the droid’s speaker and a strange warbling growl cut into the feed. 

“Scruffy!” Poe exclaimed into the comlink, another stream of growls and howls answered him. Rey and Finn were no experts in Shyriiwook, but they were certain what they heard through the speaker was the voice’s way of saying “Don’t you call me that!”

“Alright alright, I’m sorry, Chewie. I’m just excited to hear from you guys! Listen, we need a ship on Jakku. Mine is...indisposed. Can you guys get here post haste?”

‘Chewie’ started roaring again into the comlink when another voice interrupted with sounds of the two voices fighting on their end of the comlink; “Chewie, gimme that! Spice Runner, this is Nerf Herder, what do you want?! I’m in the middle of something here.”

Poe smiled before asking the voice on the other end “is someone in trouble with General Organa again?”

“Is someone ready to be stranded on Jakku!?” the voice replied snidely into the comlink.

“OK, you win,” Poe conceded. “So, can you guys make it here by nightfall? We have people after us.”

“What kind of people?” the gruff mature voice sputtered over the static.

Poe counted on his fingers as he answered.

“Let’s see. There’s some stormtroopers and a mando—the tall one.”

“Black Beskar!?” the voice shouted.

“...Yeah...That one,” Poe sighed into the comlink.

“Damn it, that tin can could fly for Rogue Squadron easy!...Alright, judging by the navicomp we should be on Jakku in about three hours. And lay low, will ya, you’ll make Chewie worry!” The man on the other end instructed, with banter from the creature growling something along the lines of ‘no I won’t’.

“You got it, Boss,” Poe smirked while assuring the voice on the other end.

“Don’t you call me that!” were the last words heard through the speaker before the feed was cut.

“Who was that,” Rey asked after Poe placed the comlink back into the hidden compartment on his droid once he turned the device off. 

“That,” Poe smiled a toothy grin at his friends, hope sparkling in his brown eyes, “was _the_ Han Solo. And we’re about to hitch a ride on the Millenium Falcon!”


	5. Bad Break

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talyc's deal with the First Order goes sour. The resistance gang go to save Finn.

Deep brown eyelids fluttered open, revealing ebony dark eyes that quickly began to dart around, desperately trying to decipher his current location. How did he get here? Why was he waking up in a dimly lit and dusty room in possibly the worst chair he ever sat in with his hands tied behind him!? And who in the blazes of Mustafar was standing over him?

As Finn’s eyes slowly came into focus he recognized the menacing First Order officer who observed him like an object more than a person; that fair almost milky skin, the fiery red hair without a single strand out of place, and that scowl that seemed permanently painted on his face. There was little doubt Finn knew who was watching him.

“FN-2187, you sit before us accused of treasonous behavior, defying your commanding officers and fellow soldiers and, lastly, fraternizing with the nefarious resistance pilot Poe Dameron. Do you have a plea?” a haughty voice came from the redhead as he slowly paced in front of his prisoner, his hands behind him to further add the air on pomp that surrounded him. He stopped in front of the defector, staring down his nose with distain as if the former trooper was a piece of dirt on his pristine leather shoe.

Scratch that, there were no doubts, this arrogant windbag was definitely General Armitage Hux.

“...sorry...” Finn trailed off quietly looking down like a scolded child.

“I beg your pardon, soldier?”

“I’m sorry,” Finn repeated as he lifted his head up to look the general in the eye. Something in him, for a split second, felt that the redhead was hiding something deep within his heart that mirrored his own, but Finn chose to ignore it as he finished, “that I didn’t do this sooner.” The former trooper’s eyes were shining with pride and a defiant smirk curled on his full lips before he added,

“Captain.”

_Slap!_

Finn’s head swung hard to his right due to the force of Hux’s backhand. He could taste the blood in his mouth as one of his teeth seemed to split his lip open.

“It’s _General_ , you insolent piece of garbage,” Hux shouted as he prowled around the table, his fury rising with every step, “I should have specified to the Mandalorian to kill you on site!”

“That wouldn't have been unnecessary,” a voice advised from one of the dark corners of the room. Finn eyed the form that slowly came into view as he emerged from the shadows; it was the Mandalorian from the cantina. The very one that caused Poe’s face to become pale upon hearing his description.

The same Mandalorian that Finn turned around and saw before a gloved hand waved across his face and everything went black.

“Unlike my clan head, my mark’s are always brought in warm. It’s a personal code of mine.”

Personal was an understatement. Ben solo was murdered, and the last splinter of the jedi’s soul clung to Talyc’s moral compass, always urging him to do the right thing.

_Take no life, Bloody One._

_Unless that life tries to steal yours once more._

Talyc pushed the buried part of his soul that tried to claw its way to the surface of his psyche once more to the deep. One of the advantages to the beskar’gam was no one could see this turmoil Talyc constantly struggled with.

“Tell me, Mandalorian,” Hux began in a silky voice that oozed with poison, “what gall do you think you have to act as if there is any good left in this galaxy. All that exists is chaos, and we of the First Order are on a mission to restore just that...order.”

Lies...

Talyc did not need the Force to see that the general was hiding behind a facade. But with the power’s aid, the mandalorian saw a man who was suffering in silence, who was unable to choose between the career that his family had followed for generations or his heart which was filled with an image if dead leaves and fresh rose petals.

“Autumn Leaves.” The words fell from Talyc’s lips without warning in a whispered breath.

The First Order General’s green eyes ignited with rage, never adverting them from the mandalorian’s as he pulled out his blaster from his belt and pointed it at Finn’s head. Hux’s breath and body were shaking with anger.

“Watch what you say next, Mandalorian, or so help me I’ll shoot this resistance scum dead and you won’t see a single karking credit!”

Sweat began to bead on Finn’s head, he tried to slow his now rapid breathing despite the barrel of a blaster pointing right at his face. 

_I don’t wanna die!_

_I don’t wanna die._

_I don’t wanna die..._

Finn closed his eyes as a wave of calm came over him and he continued to slow his breathing. He felt a strange warmth in the air that seemed to flow around him...no, it surrounded _everything_! With that warmth cradling him like a lost child found, his thoughts began to change.

_I’m not going to die..._

_I will not die._

_I am going to live!_

The former trooper opened his eyes slowly as serenity washed over him. He observed, with new eyes, Hux and Talyc continue their battle of wills before the Mandalorian slowly turned his head to the rebel he captured, and spoke without words into the Force.

_I see you._

Finn did not know whether he should be relieved or terrified at the revelation.

_Shhh..._

The voice that spoke to Finn through the Force was unheard by anyone but the young man tied to the chair. Untainted by the modulator and the muffle of his helmet, Talyc’s voice was deep and rumbling, but soft. It was a voice almost too kind to come from a man of his profession.

_Tap! Tap! Tap!_

**

Rey, Poe, Han, and Chewbacca stormed through Niima Outpost. Tensions were high in the group since they had let their guard down and the notorious Talyc Solus had snatched Finn from right under their very noses. 

And then the speeder chase.

Oh kriff, the damned speeder chase! 

Talyc had to have been one of the best pilots the scavenger had ever seen! The Mandalorian was outnumbered three to one during the hunt. Poe and Han manned their own speeders with impeccable skills of their own while Rey took Chewie along on the one she rode; all three speeders commandeered from the clearing where others left their land vehicles in the outpost. Rey could not believe her eyes as she watched the three pilots dodge and swerve between rock formations, old shipwrecks and one another yet Talyc still rode away with his bounty.

Stranger still was after the Mandalorian pulled the tightest barrel roll that Rey had ever witnessed, Finn was launched from the speeder. She thought her friend was a goner until Talyc reached out into the air and, as if holding onto something she could not see, pulled his arm back to him.

And Finn flew back onto the speeder!

Between trying to comprehend what looked like magic and trying to ignore Chewbacca roaring the word ‘sprout’ in Shyriiwook over and over; Rey failed to notice Talyc putting the speeder in reverse, in doing so he also maneuvered the vehicle so that the blasted thing was pointed to the sky above as he hauled back between the two resistance pilots, the propulsion jets shooting sand and dust every which way as he did so.

Han and Poe had to slow to a stop to shake the sand out of their eyes, and when the dust cleared, the Mandalorian was gone, and Finn with him. 

The scavenger was pulled from her thoughts by Chewie proclaiming to Han that he could “smell Sprout” much to the old smuggler's displeasure while they walked through the outpost.

** 

“Chewie, there’s no way!”

The wookie was persistent about his discovery until Han shook a stern finger while staring up at him.

“Not _one more word_ about him!”

Han ran his hand through his white disheveled hair, heaving a sigh before adding a pleading “please” in a heavy melancholy voice.

Chewbacca purred a sound that mirrored Han’s tone before pulling his old friend and partner into a tight fuzzy hug. Han relaxed into the embrace for only a second before he pushed the Wookiee away.

“Alright that’s enough of that,” his gruff voice was soft despite his attempts to seem indignant to his old friend’s display of affection.

It pained Rey to see the heroes of the Old Rebellion in such a sad state to the deepest parts of her heart, but could not for the life of her understand why, as if the pain she felt was someone else’s.

“’Ey,” Poe consoled his scavenger friend with a light nudge to her shoulder with his own, “stay focused.”

Rey saw the desperation and worry in the pilot’s brown eyes and nodded. She had to steel her resolve, they had to get Finn back.

And then she felt it!

“The cantina!” Rey gasped as she hurried to the center of Niima Outpost.

“What?” Poe and Han asked in unison. Chewie tilted his head and blinked.

“No time! Let’s go!”

The four ran to the cantina, and entered in single file with Rey in the lead. She walked straight to the bar demanding four glasses of water on a tray and threw all the credits she had on her as payment on the counter top. Once the droid placed the tray with for glasses of water on the bar, Rey lifted the tray and handed it to Poe commanding him to “hold this”.

What she did next made the young pilot turn his head and blush.

In the most brazen display of her womanhood, Rey shimmied her shoulders out of her thin dirty tunic and let the fabric fall from her arms and drape around her belt and down her hips, the only clothing covering her small breasts being the crudely wrapped linens that held them in place. Earning a few whistles and cat calls she easily ignored; Rey was on to an idea she was certain would work, and modesty was thrown to R’iia’s winds.

“Kid, what’re you doing,” Han grumbled to the scavenger as she pulled the two bottom buns out and let her light brown hair cascade down her shoulders in waves. The old smuggler had seen enough peculiar things in his life that Rey all but disrobing and making herself presentable in front of a cantina full of Niima Outpost’s worst patrons did not phase him one bit. 

Nothing seemed to surprise the old bastard anymore, and it was disappointing.

“Playing the part,” Rey insisted as she took the tray, careful not to spill the precious fluid, from Poe who was still red as a beet. “You ever heard the story of the Slave Princess who killed her Hutt master!? They say she strangled him with the very chains he bound her with!”

It seems there still were some surprises left hidden in the Galaxy. Han smirked upon hearing the story Rey quickly told the group. Keeping to himself how he not only knew the story, but he was the reason why the princess killed the Hutt; all so she could save him from his carbonite prison.

The scantily clad scavenger took a deep breath and steadied the tray in her quivering hands. She looked to Chewie and told the Wookiee to stay at the bar and keep and eye out for troopers. The Wookiee nodded knowing what to do if the situation went sour, this was not his first rescue mission. Rey stepped carefully to the doorway blocked off now not just with the burlap, but also a lone stormtrooper. Poe and Han decided to follow Rey with caution. 

“Only authorized personnel may pass this point, miss” The First Order soldier was firm but surprisingly polite. Her poor attempt at using her womanly wiles seemed to be working. 

But the exposed shoulders and flowing hair weren’t enough. So the scavenger decided to try something else.

“Our presence is required in the next room,” Rey’s voice was slow and strained with focus as she looked into the troopers visor, trying to channel whatever it was Mandalorian controlled outside the cantina.

Poe and Han slightly turned and glanced at each other with cocked eyebrows as if the girl in front of them had sprouted an extra head. Then their eye’s grew wide.

The stormtrooper stepped aside, much to everyone’s surprise. Rey used all the restraint she had to hide her smile. Whatever it was she did, it worked!

_Tap! Tap! Tap!_

Talyc and Hux turned to the doorway as a woman, whom the bounty hunter instantly recognized as the scavenger, entered the room slowly. She was shirtless and held her head down with a tray in her hands carrying four glasses of water. While Hux was unimpressed, annoyed even, by the sudden intrusion of the girl’s presence; Talyc could not help but gaze at her. Her lean muscle tone, the soft slender curve of her waist from her breasts to her hips. The galaxies of freckles that graced her shoulders, arms and chest. Besides how beautiful the mandalorian found the woman who haunted his dreams for years, her closeness caused a stirring in him that was foreign yet familiar. For reasons he could not explain, Talyc felt _whole_.

She stepped further into the room, stopping at the table between Hux and the Mandalorian, and placing the glasses of water onto the table but never parting with the tray. Talyc could sense the presence of two bodies behind the burlap in the shadows, one presence so familiar it made him uncomfortable. 

Finn tried to keep his excitement hidden upon seeing his friend enter the room. Help had arrived and the blaster Hux still pointed at his forehead did not seem as threatening. All the bound captive could think about was how great it would be if the gun would just not fire when the General pulled the trigger.

“Excuse me,” the redhead asked with an air of one who was well versed in interrogation, “can you explain to me why you’re here?”

The woman stood still and silent, her eyes still planted to the floor. She was a goddess of secrets and the man beside her had failed to provide her a proper offering.

“Girl! Answer the question! That’s an order!” Hux cried out in frustration.

Her body remained motionless, the only movement she made was to raise her eye lashes and glanced at Talyc before turning her eyes to the shouting General. Her amber eyes, the very ones that Talyc saw in his strange vision, were teeming with venom.

The shallow well of Armitage Hux’s patience had run dry as Jakku itself when he redirected the blaster at the girl’s head.

“Rey!” Finn shouted from his chair, fear shaking his voice.

“I’ve had just about enough you, you dirty little cantina wh-”

Hux was cut off as Talyc raised his arm in the air and lowered it with the same speed and urgency. The General’s body seemed to lift with an unknown force connected to the mandalorian’s hand before his face was slammed into the table with a sickening crack. His dazed body falling to the ground, his nose gushing blood from his collision with the table, in a dizzy heap. Two men ran into the room with blasters aimed and ready as Rey, the scavenger in white, with the speed of a loth-cat smashed the edge of the tray into Talyc’s visor hard enough to shatter the protective glass in pieces.

Talyc took a few steps back shaking out the shards from his helmet, he was lucky he still had both eyes, the only injuries he sustained being minor scratches on his face.

Han and Poe, after making their grand entrance upon hearing the ruckus, shuffled over to Finn; Han keeping his blaster ready to fire while Poe went behind his captured comrade to untie his restraints.

“Finn, you alright,” Poe asked as he untied the last knot, the rope falling limp around the former stormtrooper as he wriggled himself loose.

“Better now,” Finn exclaimed, kicking the chair back and standing up to join the fight, “but I’m pretty sure the mando knocked Hux stupid with his mind! Can mandalorians use magic!?” Finn asked as he caught a plasma pistol thrown to him by Poe. 

Concern grew on Han’s face as he furrowed his brow.

“That’s no magic, kid, that’s the Force,” Han exhaled as he shot at incoming stormtroppers that were piling into the room and aimlessly shooting at their targets. 

“Wait a minute I thought the Force was just a myth!?” Poe could not believe what he was hearing from the seasoned general whose views on the Galaxy and life were pretty cut and dry.

“It’s as real as you and me, Spice Runner! Now how about you stop yakkin’ and start shootin’!”

Talyc reached out and stopped incoming blaster bolts in midair while he grabbed Rey and pulled her to the ground with him, redirecting the streams of plasma back at the soldiers who shot at him and the scavenger. 

“You idiot! I just saved your life and this is how you repay me!?” the mandalorian shouted at her pointing a finger to the broken visor on his helmet with the same energy she saw when Han did the same thing a few minutes before. 

“Idiot!? I’ll have you know I am no such-” Rey started to spit out at Talyc but trailed off when she finally looked at the damage she caused on his headgear. 

It was not the hard gaze he peered at her, nor the possibly expensive damage to his visor that took her breath away. It was those eyes, seething fury aside, she knew those brown eyes that seemed to have watched her from far away for as long as she could remember.

“You...” she gasped softly, forgetting about the barrage of lasers and the shouts from her renegade friends. There was only those deep brown eyes she finally got close enough to really see a month ago in a restless dream, and the fluttering beats of her heart.

Talyc struggled to break away from her gaze; when he finally did he saw a stormtrooper enter the room and aimed the blaster at the scavenger’s back. Like lightning the mandalorian swept Rey over his lap and shot the trooper in the chest with his own blaster that he pulled from his hip. His heart was pounding in his ribcage so hard he could hear it in his ears. 

Speaking of his ears, they started to feel hot, as did his face within his helmet. Talyc looked down and saw the scavenger sprawled across his armored thighs, and he could feel the heat of her sun kissed skin through his armored gloves.

Rey pushed herself off of Talyc, the world somehow grew colder, and cut through his runaway thoughts.

“What the kriff was that for!?”

“Covering you,” he answered while he shot at more troopers that entered the room, trying to guide a path for the trio of men to make their exit. “But we have to go! Now!” he added grabbing her hand and pulling the scavenger up from the floor and leading her to the only door of out the room.

The cantina was loud and chaotic as bar fights between patrons, bartenders, and stormtroopers erupted throughout the place.

“Come on, this way,” Talyc hollered as he pulled Rey out of the cantina and through Niima Outpost towards his ship.

As they hurried through the makeshift town, Talyc began to feel a Force-signature both dark and foreboding. It bore its black talons into the mandalorian’s heart, drawing him back into the sludge of insecurities that he thought were cast away when he became a foundling. 

Absolute terror began to not only consume him, but Talyc felt in Rey’s own signature that she was prey to the fear as well.

“We have to get off planet as soon as possible,” the mandalorian called out to the scavenger he pulled along with him. He stopped running when he felt her hand leave his.

Talyc turned around to see a warrior, completely armored in black, wearing a mask that covered his face with deep straight lines that came together in a grid pattern on a smooth silver surface. The unknown combatant held Rey close with one arm across her chest and the other held a unique blade, shaped like a short hand scythe, pointed to her throat. The fear that poisoned the Force around the three was strongest from the assailant that held the scavenger, no doubt the warrior was the origin of the dark phenomenon.

“Give her back. She’s of no use to you,” Talyc demanded to the other, trying with all he had to ignore the paralyzing fear that engulfed him, and caused him to tremble.

“Her usefulness is not for you to decide, bounty hunter,” a mechanical voice spoke through the mask, altered from a modulator within the covering. “The Supreme Leader requested the Shadow to seek out Force-sensitives in this location while the General was on business, I merely obliged.”

Talyc felt his wind-pipe squeeze shut after the masked warrior finished speaking. He wheezed and grunted as he desperately tried to breathe. The broken visor revealed his pale skin to deepen in color to a dark red as the Force betrayed and asphyxiated him. 

“Fascinating,” the Force-using assassin purred with intrigue while observing the Mandalorian who fell to his knees, “you knock on death’s door, yet you do not fear it. What is it that you _do_ fear Mandalorian?”

Talyc was beginning to turn blue, his eyes bloodshot and glossy but stilled locked with Rey’s as he, with the very last bit of strength he had, called out to her with the Force. It seemed that the assailant heard his soundless pleas as the grip on his throat ceased and Talyc collapsed on the sand beneath him, hearing the dark warrior continue to speak.

“You fear loneliness more than death itself. Never have I seen a creature like you.”

Talyc’s mind fell prey to the coming darkness that consumed his consciousness, he heard Rey’s feet drag through the sand as she fought and begged to stay on Jakku.

“They won’t find me if they come back!”

Talyc sank into darkness and he whispered out to Rey though the Force.

“Ni Kelir mar'eyir gar, Oya’ika. Ke'pare par ni. _I will find you, little hunter. Wait for me._ ”

The mandalorian finally gave in and Black Beskar Talyc Solus was swallowed by the black of sleep and defeat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ni Kelir mar'eyir gar, Oya’ika. Ke'pare par ni - "I will find you, little hunter. Wait for me."


	6. Honor as Payment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talyc is interrogated before given a new mark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was possibly my favorite to write so far. It would have posted yesterday but the battery on my laptop died before I had a chance to save the work I transcribed from my notebook. 
> 
> Updates may slow down as I have to help my daughter with school during our stay at home order. I'll try to get a chapter updated at least every other day this week.
> 
> I also wanted to give credit and shout out to Exposition_Emporium on the nickname sprout for Ben Solo. It was mentioned in her story Star Wars: Atonement which is a great story and I highly recommend!  
> Enjoy

“Flower Queen, this is Autumn Leaves, please respond.”

“Autumn Leaves, this is Flower queen. Do you have anything to report,” a woman’s voice replied through the comlink, drawing a sigh of relief from the bedraggled redhead who stood alone in the cantina backroom; nursing his broken nose and wiping the dried blood with his handkerchief. Without the aid of the water that spilled all over the table and floor, Hux felt as if a thousand tiny needles pricked and stabbed his tender skin as he wiped away the oxidized crust. The room looked how the First Order General felt, completely in shambles.

“The rescue mission was a success; however, according to my sources, Vicrul of the Knights of Ren have apprehended a Force-sensitive. She is being taken to Starkiller base as we speak.” Hux reported to the woman through the comlink.

Silence hung in the air for what felt like the longest minute of Armitage Hux’s life.

“This is bad.”

“Is that all you have to say about-” the general began to shout into the comlink but stopped himself, “I-I’m sorry, love, things are quite tense at the moment.” 

The First Order General wished the woman on the other end of the link understood the sincerity of his apology. Armitage Hux rarely said ‘sorry’ to anyone, but the Flower Queen did not deserve his ire. “But you are indeed correct, my Flower, this is most definitely not in your cause’s favor.”

“Is there anything else to report, Autumn? I don’t want to keep you too long, I-we don’t want your cover blown.”

“Nothing else,” Hux answered the Flower Queen. Just hearing her kind voice for a few moments at a time was a balm on his conflicted heart. To know someone in this Maker forsaken galaxy cared about his well being and not about his rank, or for him to further climb up the ladder of First Order command, brought peace within him. It was only natural that he would have eventually fell for the woman behind the voice that was a light in his world of darkness despite having never seen her face. 

“Alright,” his Flower spoke through the link, “and Autumn.”

“Yes Flower?”

“Be safe okay.”

There it was again, that light feeling in his chest. If Armitage Hux were to die in this moment, joy would be what killed him. 

“Your wish is my command, my Flower. Leaves out.”

With those last words, Hux shut off his comlink and dropped the small device on the floor, shattering it into tiny pieces with a heavy stomp of his pristine boot.

**

“Hey,” a voice echoed in the swirling darkness, “hey, tin can, rise’n’shine.”

“Are you sure he’s gonna respond to that?”

“Well do you have any better ideas, Spice Runner?”

“Geez, for once could you call me by my real name?”

Among the voices that floated through Talyc’s head was the growls of Shyriiwook that translated to the phrase “call him ‘Sprout’!”

“Chewie, for the last time, I’m not calling him that!”

“Guys.”

“And, Spice Runner, the answer is ‘no’!”

“ _Guys_! I think he’s waking up!”

Talyc’s exposed eyelashes fluttered like moth’s wings before they opened as a hoarse, gravelly growl that he barely recognized as his own voice addressed the four figures that hovered over him.

“For stars’ sake will you all just shut up!” 

The three men and the Wookiee paused. Talyc darted his eyes about the room; recognizing the ceiling of hanging wires, the dejarik table by the round booth in the back corner, the pungent smell of Wookiee fur and engine coolant that wafted through the air. There was not a shred of doubt in the mandalorian’s mind that he was indeed on board the Millennium Falcon!

‘How long has it been,’ Talyc thought to himself feigning ignorance in regards to his surroundings. Was it fifteen? Twenty years since the last time he stepped foot on the Falcon’s bridge?

The face behind the familiar voice came into view as the oldest of the humans stepped forward and crouched down to look the mandalorian in the eye. It was then that Talyc realized that he-

Ben Solo.

The lost Prince of Alderaan.

Was staring into the eyes of his father Han Solo for the first time in nearly two decades, only for his father to stare back with the same fire in his eyes the mandalorian imagined the old man had when fighting the Empire before he was born.

This had to be a dream; a beautiful, horrible dream.

“Alright, mando,” Han started pointing a stern finger at his captive, or hostage, the white haired smuggler had not decided yet, at Talyc. 

“I would appreciate if you didn’t call me that!” Talyc’s voice strained to be audible, broken from the Force strangulation at the hands of that bastard on Jakku.

“On my ship I get to call you,” Han taunted the Mandalorian by knocking his fist gently on the beskar helmet, making a small clink with his knuckles, “whatever I want! Just ask ol’ Spice Runner and Fuzzball over there.” The smuggler cocked his head over at the Wookiee and the man with wild dark curls whom must have been ‘Spice Runner’.

“The name’s Poe,” spice runner spoke as he stepped towards Han and Talyc. “Spice runner was an old occupation of mine before I met Han and joined the resistance.”

Talyc noticed Finn’s agitation rise in his Force-signature, but the mandalorian also noted the side glances at Poe and the darkening of the former stormtrooper’s cheeks and ears, clearly the young man’s worries were more than just about the missing scavenger girl. This gave Talyc an idea, for he knew plenty about Poe Dameron from the seedy cantinas he had stopped in when traveling through the Outer Rim. He knew of the whispered thoughts and proclamations of infatuation for the infamous Resistance pilot. The mandalorian smirked beneath his mask, his exposed eyes behind the missing glass on his visor were shining with a mischievous glimmer.

“Poe, as in Poe Dameron the pilot?” Talyc asked the spice runner, ignoring the flicker of concern from Finn’s Force-signature, and disregarding his father’s gaze that tried to read him.

“I am,” Poe answered the Mandalorian, leaning his back against the wall covered in control panels and blinking lights, being careful not to press any buttons on accident, “you’ve heard of me?” 

“In my field of expertise,” Talyc started with a deep rumble that was almost seductive, “Your name bears the weight of great riches and credits. The bounty of a man wanted in one hundred and twelve star systems, not including the entire Hapes Consortium.”

Poe’s face paled and his eyes grew wide, “what do you know about Hapes?”

“I know you’re wanted for bewitching ladies...and seducing many lords in the Hapen Royal Court.”

“That’s a steaming load of bantha crap!” Poe stomped towards the Mandalorian shaking a finger wildly, “I’ve never bewitched a single woman in my entire life!”

Han had to turn away from Poe to stifle his laugh, Chewie did not bother to hide his amusement. Finn’s face darkened all the way down his neck. If Talyc was not wearing his helmet everyone would have seen him smile from ear to ear at the sight of the roguish pilot squirming uncomfortably.

‘I like this one!’ Han thought to himself about the Mandalorian tied to the chair.

“Alright, I’ve had enough,” Finn cut into the chaos with conviction and a blushing face. For what may have been the first time in his life, the defector felt that he found something, someone, to fight for in his newfound scavenger friend.

“While you three are bickering about nicknames and _personal endeavors_ ,” Finn emphasized the last words as he stared at Poe before he continued addressing the rest of the room, “Rey is out there in the black and held captive by the First Order! We need to do something!”

Han and Poe lowered their heads sheepishly, the smuggler stroked the stubble on his chin while Poe crossed his arms and brought his thumb to his lip to bite his nail. Talyc could feel the tension as it flowed through the Force around him. He would be a liar if he said he was not afraid for the scavenger as well. 

All the brooding in the ship was halted by the buzzing sound of an alarm that filled the air. Han stood up and looked at the Falcon’s cockpit and noticed a blinking light at the holocom. The smuggler walked over to the communication tech at the cockpit and beckoned Finn and Poe to follow. The two men grabbed each side of Talyc’s chair and with some struggle dragged the Mandalorian to the cockpit with them, complaining along the way.

“Kriff, what does this guy eat!?”

“Don’ know but he weighs a ton!”

“You both know I can hear you.” Talyc deadpanned from his restraints.

“Oh can it, mando!” Poe spat out at the Mandalorian before directing his words to General Solo. “Hey, Han, is it the General?”

Han flipped a few switches and turned a dial before a ghostly blue hologram of a woman a few years younger than the old smuggler appeared at the cockpit, her hair tied in elaborate braids pinned up like a laurel on her head in the signature Alderaan Royal style.

Finn and Poe, after dragging the man armored from head to toe in Mandalorian iron, struggled slightly before turning the chair around for the Mandalorian to see the hologram at the cockpit.

Talyc wished they had not. For Talyc Solus, the foundling whose hidden name was Ben Solo, for the first time in nearly twenty long years, after just being captured by his father on Jakku…

Was now face to face with his mother, Leia Organa.

Despite the holo’s blue aura and static distortion, Talyc could see that time had been kind to her. Some streaks of gray painted her brown hair and the faint lines of wrinkles marked her face, but she still was as beautiful and poised as the mandalorian remembered her. Regal as the last day he saw her when Luke took him away to the Jedi Temple despite wearing clothes more suited for a soldier than a princess.

He wondered if she would have aged less if he had not disappeared. Did she know what Luke did to him? Talyc’s thoughts were being drowned out by the deafening pounding of his heart. 

“General Organa,” Han greeted as he sat down in his throne, the pilot’s seat of the Millennium Falcon.

“General Solo,” Leia replied and greeted before she continued, “it has been brought to my attention that a young Force-sensitive girl has been abducted by the First Order.”

“How do you know about that already!?” Han pried, trying to keep his voice calm. He hated when Leia did that. 

“Like you, I have my sources. And again, like you, I choose to keep my secrets.” she teased her husband with a sly grin.

“Regardless of sources, Leia, why the com?”

“Tell her about Sprout!” Chewbacca roared out in Shyriiwook.

“Chewie, stop it!” Han demanded the Wookiee.

“Han,” General Organa squinted her eyes, “who is ‘Sprout’?”

Judging by Han’s face growing pale and the deep sigh he huffed, the smuggler General knew it was a loaded question.

“Finn, Poe, show the General our guest.” General Solo ordered the pilot and the defector, getting a few short whines in response before they pushed the chair Talyc was tied to forward so as Leia could get a better view on her end of the holocom. The mandalorian was now as close as he could be to his mother, given the circumstances.

Talyc wished his visor was not broken for fear his mother would recognize her dead son’s eyes. If General Organa knew her son was alive, it may break her. If Talyc’s identity was revealed, he would become dar’manda _damned_. 

Ben Solo lost his soul once, he would be damned beyond redemption if he lost his soul a second time.

Talyc silently prayed to the angels of Legos that his mother could not feel his apprehension through the Force from so far away. He had always known his mother was Force-sensitive, but he was never sure just how powerful the other Skywalker twin was. His mother may have been the last Princess of Alderaan, but she would always be the Queen of Secrets.

General Leia Organa stared at the Mandalorian through the holocom and Talyc could not help but do the same. 

“My name is Talyc of the Clan Din Djarin.” the mandalorian introduced himself to his mother. 

General Organa held her chin in her hand with gentle fingers as he thought to herself. How many times had Talyc seen her with the same expression on her face as she read through the mountains of New Republic paperwork for the Senate? How many times had he seen that face when she listened to Han discuss his missions on the comlink with her while abroad? 

“Does Talyc have a second name?” The General asked.

“Solus.” The mandalorian answered.

“’Bloody One’...Tell me is that the name Din Djarin gave you as a foundling?” 

“No, I knew Mando’a before I was found. I chose my own name.”

Leia smiled and nodded in a way that warmed Talyc’s heart, but that warmth froze upon what she said next.

“It seems you and my husband share the same second name, should I question the fidelity of a known scoundrel during this holocom?”

The four men and the wookie stilled and grew pale at the General’s words. Han looked as if he were about to jump into the holocom so he could plead with his wife in person on D’qar. And then the old woman began to laugh to herself in a small dignified chuckle.

“Forgive me for making jokes during such trying times, but I couldn’t resist. Besides, Han maybe lesser known for his outstanding loyalty in the Galaxy, but I assure you it is, in fact, within him.”

Han rolled his eyes indignantly as Poe released the breath he had been holding. Finn and Chewie remained quite. But Talyc tried with everything he had to calm his racing heart, who knew that his mother, the princess, had such a dark sense of humor?

The General returned to her poised demeanor as she continued her lighthearted interrogation, “And how did you end up where you are right now, Talyc Solus of the Clan Din Djarin?”

The mandalorian was unsure of how to answer his mother’s question, he had to think for a moment before he answered, 

“I was after the mark identified as FN-2187. I apprehended him, and during payment negotiations the girl and the others intervened to his rescue. Once I realized she and the mark were Force-sensitive I tried to help her escape with the others. I failed, and she was taken by a Force using member of the First Order.”

General Organa nodded and returned her hand to her chin as she pondered over what she was about to say next. “Talyc, it seems that I am in need of a bounty hunter, and you are in need to restore your honor. I believe we may be of great use to each other for you see, almost ten years ago, my Force-sensitive son was...killed...because of the untamed nature of his gift.”

‘Killed!?’ Talyc thought angrily to himself, ‘your brother murdered your son!’

“Leia, please don’t,” Han spoke softly to the General not as a fellow officer, but as her husband, “we both know what Luke did to Ben.”

General Organa placed a hand over her mouth for a moment before she wiped her eyes, “My apologies, Talyc. As I was saying, since my son’s murder Han and I have made it our duty to not only fight the growing control the First Order has claimed over the Galaxy, but to also seek out Force-sensitives and keep them out of the First Order’s hands. Since the death of my son, Supreme Leader Snoke has made a great effort to recruit and take in any Force-sensitive people and children, many by coercion. Some of those who have been recruited are now known as the Knights of Ren.

“So, Talyc Solus of the Clan Din Djarin, better known as Clan of Three, will you take the mark known as Rey of Jakku and bring her to the Resistance base on D’Qar?”

“What!?”

“Seriously!?”

“Leia,” Han leaned closer to the Holocomm, “you can’t be serious! What makes you think the First Order won’t outbid you and mando here sells us out?”

“Han, I haven’t forgotten your personal grudges with the Mandalorian people. I was there when Boba Fett froze you in carbonite. And besides, if the First Order tries to strike a deal with you, Mandalorian,” General Organa redirected her speech back to Talyc, “I promise I can double any offer they-”

“I’ll do it,” Talyc interrupted his mother.

“What!?” Finn and Poe shouted, shocked to hear the Mandalorian agree to the deal so quickly while Leia’s holo began to smirk. 

“I knew Sprout would help!” Chewie roars in celebration in his beastly language.

“Will you name your price, Bloody One?” The Princess asked with a smile and a twinkle in her eyes that always appeared whenever she proved to Han he was wrong when she was irrefutably right.”

“I request for a down payment, enough credits for fuel and provisions to take my ship to Takodana, as well as repairs for my visor when I get there.” Talyc spoke in a droll tone that he commonly used when he was conducting business. “When the mark is brought to you, my restored honor as a bounty hunter and a Mandalorian should be payment enough. But we can discuss that further when I get the girl to D’Qar.”

“Gee, Mando, you drive a hard bargain,” General Solo huffed sarcastically at the Mandalorian. 

“Han! That’s no way to talk to our client! And Talyc.”

“Yes, General,” Talyc’s chest swelled every time his mother spoke his name, even if it was not the one she gave him.

“Welcome to the resistance. Now get off my husband’s ship and we’ll meet at Takodana!” General Organa commanded the bounty hunter before her holo disappeared into the holocomm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mando - "mandalorian"
> 
> Mando'a - the mandalorian language
> 
> Dar'manda - "damned one" the term for those who abandon the Mandalorian code of honor or lose their honor via revealing their face etc.


	7. The Pirate Queen's Council

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maz sees Talyc for who he is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you like the story so far. Dont be afraid to comment or give kudos.

Once the holocomm connection with General Organa was broken, Han gave Talyc the credits owed for travel to Takodana and for estimated repairs begrudgingly before sending him on his way, but not before Chewbacca came up and embraced the mandalorian in a tight squeeze on the Millennium Falcon’s bridge. Talyc wondered as he walked down the gangplank of the old freighter what the others thought of the Wookiee ’s affections. Truth be told, Chewie’s kindness was expected as the Wookiee kept referring to the mandalorian by his old nickname when his furry uncle used to play with him long ago in a happier time.

The Mythosaur was surprisingly not far from the Falcon, and, thank the stars, no pesky Jawas sank their sandy little claws into it while he was away. It was safe to say that getting off of Jakku would be as easy as fooling a stormtrooper.

Talyc entered the black and after some minor calculations while observing the navicomp, he found the hyperlane to Takodona and hit light speed. The trip would be a few hours on autopilot, giving the mandalorian some time for a shower in the refresher and a short rest.

After washing away the past day’s dust and sweat from his skin and taking in the freedom of his solitude to lay unarmored, clothed with only his trousers, on his cabin cot with only the stars as his witness, Talyc recalled the events that took place in the last few hours. Encountering the scavenger girl from his dreams and the shock that she was a real person. His unexpected reunion with his father, and the conversation with his mother; even Chewie’s banter, all of it, was overwhelming yet blissful all at once. But with the elation of seeing his family again came the crushing sorrow that his parents and his self-appointed uncle believed that Ben was dead. And to honor their son’s memory his parent’s vowed together that they would try to protect other Force-sensitive people from the Dark side of the Force, all because they failed their child. 

Talyc never thought of his parents being capable of an apology, as headstrong as they both were. Alas here they were, both generals of the Resistance together, and providing safety and guidance to Force-sensitives throughout the Galaxy, also together.

Long ago, when the mandalorian’s name was still Ben, he always believed that if he were to disappear, his parents’ lives would be easier. Talyc never realized how wrong he was until today.

These were the drifting thoughts the mandalorian reflected on as sleep overcame him.

**

Talyc opened his eyes upon hearing a woman’s sobs, waking up in a sterile duristeel room lit with bright florescent glow panels in the walls. He found himself laying on the cold floor of the room as he sat up to take in his blinding surroundings. The mandalorian was no longer in his ship’s cabin but what looked like a prison cell; and sitting on a raised duristeel slab, a pathetic imitation of a bed, sat the scavenger girl. She had replaced the tunic she partially removed in the cantina to her shoulders, but her hair still flowed down her back, free of restraints except the one loose bun on the back of her head.

‘Rey,’ Talyc reminded himself, ‘her name is Rey.’

Unaware of his actions, he reached out to touch her, more so to ensure he was dreaming than anything else. He expected his hand to pass through her body like all the other ghosts of his dreams, or to simply awake in his cabin when his hand touched her shoulder.

Talyc did not expect the girl to turn around after ramming his scarred chest with a wild elbow, and lunge atop of him as he fell back on the smooth duristeel floor. Rey pinned him down by straddling his broad chest, ready to strike with a clenched fist. She was a wild loth-cat ready for the kill.

But her features, once fierce, softened and she relaxed her offensive stance.

On instinct Talyc scooped the scavenger aside and rolled on top of her, pinning her down effortlessly, and held her wrists down on the floor within his hands. The dead silence of the holding cell broken by their panting breaths. The mandalorian observed the woman that laid beneath him, how her cheeks began to glow a light rosy shade of pink, how the pupils of her light brown eyes were blown with adrenaline, and lastly the way her Force-signature called out to him in a way he had never felt before from anyone.

The unarmored mandalorian suddenly became aware of her freckled tanned skin on her cheeks, her hair that lay in waving rivers along the floor, and her shapely pouting lips. The way her slender wrists fit within his hands a certain way that made his heart flutter, and the swell of her small breast beneath her tunic. Talyc’s face and ears were growing hot again just as they had done when he gawked at her in the cantina, only now the beautiful woman laying under him could see the blood rush that darkened his skin without the obstruction of his mask. It was then that Talyc deciphered that he was being rude to the scavenger and felt he had treated her no better than her captors. 

Talyc Solus was a ruthless bounty hunter, but he still deep down had the manners of a prince.

The unarmored mandalorian released his grip from her wrists and moved himself off of her, steadying himself and kneeling beside the scavenger. Rey herself sat up, slow and cautious, until she mirrored his kneel before him.

“Why are you here?” She questioned the man before her.

Talyc could not answer her inquiry. He would have assumed this was just a strange dream, but after finding her to be real he thought about the last dream when she touched his face in the desert. He thought of the sand on his cheek where her bandaged hands had touched his skin. The mandalorian did not know how or why, but he knew he was not just in a dream, he by some way of the Force was in a prison cell somewhere unknown in the Galaxy, light years away from his ship.

“I’m not sure,” he answered the prisoner. Watching her as she brought her knees to her chest. Her morose stirred in him the determination to find an answer as soon as he could. 

Talyc looked her over searching for signs of injury, but was relieved to find nothing in plain sight. He was not a fool; however, he knew how the First Order sometimes worked. “Have they hurt you?”

“No,” the scavenger replied curtly before she sighed with resignation, “that is to say, not yet.”

The bounty hunter watched the tears shine in her eyes once more. His heart ached as if he felt the pain in her chest. The feeling of hope dying slowly, withering away into a gray husk. And the fear of being doomed to be alone for the rest of what may be a short life. He leaned forward and reached out to her with both hands. Brushing the tears from her eyes as they threatened to fall. It pained him, in way he had not felt in a dangerously long time, to see the woman he knew was strong enough to survive the wrath of Jakku, waver in the presence of the First Order. 

He wanted to tell her he was coming, that he would be there to help her escape. But his honor got in the way. And he could only give her a partial truth.

“They’re coming for you. I promise.”

Rey looked into Talyc’s eyes. He was unarmored and vulnerable, and the only way to keep his honor intact was to separate the man, whose eyes Rey recognized through broken glass and beskar, from the warrior that both enraged and intrigued her. It dawned on her what his words meant, she blinked trying to understand.

“Wait, if you’re not him, then who are you!?”

Before Talyc could think of an answer he was awake in his cabin, on his ship, in the black. The light ringing of the autopilot’s alarms that the hyperlane was coming to an end and the Mythosaur was approaching it's destination.

**

The planet Takodana’s surface was lush and green with endless forests and lake beds that rippled and waved as Talyc’s ship made planetfall on a clearing nearby the infamous Pirate Queen’s Castle. The towering stone palace was a known neutral ground for space pirates and vagabonds alike, seeking refuge or lodging during their journeys. It had also become home to one of the last Mandalorian armorers in the Galaxy.

Before leaving his ship, Talyc readied his armor and donned his damaged helmet. As he walked down the gangplank to the planet’s surface he looked up. The sky was gray and overcast as she cried a light rain, her tears falling down to the planet’s surface. The sprinkling downpour reminded the mandalorian of the water he stopped from rolling down Rey’s cheek a few hours before.

It was a refreshing change of scenery, one can only bear dying desert planets for so long. 

‘How the stars did the scavenger do it?’ Talyc thought as he trudged to the Castle’s gate, ‘What wild spirit possessed her to live so long on such a horrendous planet alone?’

The mandalorian shook his head in a futile attempt to rid himself of this new distraction that was Rey of Jakku while he reached the Pirate Queen's stone fortress. The ziggurat among the trees and rock faces was covered in colorful banners of all sorts of planets, syndicates, and factions of governments that were welcome to cross the threshold and settle in. Talyc’s eyes met with the dark red and pale green yellow banner of the Mandalorian mythosaur sigil that hung at the top and center for all the Galaxy to see. The creature of the sigil looking out at the world beyond the castle like a guardian of the gate as the banner flowed in the gentle wind. The mandalorian looked on with pride and sorrow; proud of the tribe of many races that took him in and gave him a new life, but never quite forgetting what he lost for such gain.

The first grand room of the Castle was a colossal cantina, possibly the largest one of the Western Reach. Filled with a variety of humanoids, creatures, and droids from nearly every star system in the known galaxy. Talyc laughed quietly to himself over the thought of how much easier it would have been for his mother to turn this cantina into the Galactic Senate than the failed attempt she made after the fall of the Empire. His snickers were met with side-eye stares of some of the cantina’s seedier patrons, though Talyc figured more of the glances were due to his human eyes exposed behind the broken visor.

The mandalorian caught a yellow orange blur and a quick glare of glass approach him, shoving various patrons aside as if they owned the place.

As it turned out, she, in fact, did.

“Black Beskar,” a very short and downright ancient alien with the largest goggle like spectacles that, to this day, Talyc had ever seen, shouted as she confidently strode over to the mandalorian. She wore deep blue overalls and a burgundy long sleeve shirt, a string of large wooden beads dangled from her thin neck. Her feet were adorned with heavy tauntaun leather work boots. The Pirate Queen Maz Kanata dressed more like an urchin child than the figurehead of the Galaxy’s largest smuggling ring and black market. “For stars’ sake it’s been too long! Well, c’mon and have a- well what the kriff happened to you!?”

Maz gave Talyc a smack on his armored forearm as she scolded him, looking deep into his eyes that looked back at her through shattered glass. 

“I got in a bar fight with a...fetching desert girl,”the mandalorian answered nonchalantly. Trying to ignore the feeling that the old creature was reading his mind through her intense gaze.

The Pirate Queen smirked and Talyc grew uncomfortable. As a child, when Han and Leia would bring him along to visit Maz at the Castle, he had always avoided looking into her eyes. He felt when their eyes would meet that she was trying to search through his past lives. If there was such a thing. 

Maz grabbed Talyc’s hand with a strength that surprised the bounty hunter and pulled him over to an empty round wooden table.

“Sit,” she ordered as she climbed up onto the dirty, ale soaked tabletop and perched before Talyc like a curious little imp. “It’s been a few centuries since I had a chance to observe the eyes of a Mandalorian, Talyc!” Maz added with glee as she turned the dials on the goggle frames that magnified her eyes so much that Talyc thought he could see the other side of the abyss within her pupils.

The Pirate Queen bored deep into The mandalorian’s brown eyes. His soul was unable to hide from her, vulnerable to her intense gaze, like every moment he lived was being observed. Talyc was an open book, and Maz was the excited reader of his tragic tale.

After what felt like years caught in her stare, Maz’s smile fell into a small frown as she leaned back from her subject. A bated breath escaped Talyc’s lips in a shaking sigh.

“Boy,” Maz called Talyc a name he remembered her calling him as a young child, “you are a man with two souls warring within you. One,” she started while flicking his Beskar helmet with long withered fingers, “yearns to maintain the freedom he has gained and wishes to hide from his troubles. The other,” Maz pauses and places the same hand on his breastplate over his heart, and her eyes became soft. 

She knows.

“Feels bound by the destiny of his blood; shackled to duty, and desires, over everything else, to return home and finally belong.” 

The Pirate Queen most definitely knows.

“So,” Maz spoke again after rearranging herself so she sat cross-legged on the table in front of her Mandalorian friend, her forearms resting on her knees. “What are you going to do?”

Talyc silently looked at Maz, his body heavy with remorse. He truly did not know what to do.

“Talyc Solus,” the Pirate Queen placed a gentle hand on his armored shoulder, “You have the kind, sad eyes of a dead boy I met long ago...Tell me, Mandalorian, were you a foundling?”

Any lingering doubts of Maz seeing though Ben Solo’s beskar disguise were gone and, with the shock of his identity known, Talyc leaped from his seat; the chair falling to the floor behind him with a loud thud. Patrons from surrounding tables stopped to watch, but carried on with their shady business when realizing the Pirate Queen was in no danger.

“Slanar Yiam. Val linibar gar. _Go home. They need you._ ” Maz pleaded in fluent Mando’a.

The words struck Talyc to his core. He stepped to the table and softly answered her with eyes shining with tears he withheld and a quiver in his voice.

“Kyr’am liser shi kemir solus goyust, bal yiam cuyir munit Nor’be ni. _Death can only walk one road, and home is long behind me._ ”

Maz looked down, placing a hand under her chin as she thought over the words Talyc said.

“Now,” the mandalorian added, “if you’ll excuse me, I must head to the armorer.”

The Pirate Queen looked up at Talyc, and at the man behind the mask, “May the Force be with you, Boy.”

Talyc slowly nodded before locking his eyes with hers to say, “And you as well, Maz, take care.”

And with those words spoken, the mandalorian walked away to find the armorer who resided in one of the many winding wings of the Pirate Queen’s Castle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slanar Yiam. Val linibar gar. - Go home. They need you.
> 
> Kyr'am liser shi kemir solus goyust, bal yaim cuyir munit Nor'be ni. - Death can only walk one road, and home is long behind me


	8. Old Relic, New Quest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talyc finds something deep within the Castle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While looking through a Mando'a dictionary. I came across the pronunciation of Ben's name. It is [Tahl-Leesh So-Loos]. Let it be known I am learning with you all as I research during the writing process.

“It took some time to repair the censors, otherwise this was an easy fix,” the Mandalorian Armorer spoke in a stoic voice that had a patina of age and wisdom. Of all the Mandalorians Talyc had encountered, she was the most knowledgeable of their people’s traditions and culture. 

The unmasked mandalorian sat behind a tall wooden partition in the room so he could be unarmored without judgment as no one could witness his bare face. The wooden panels formed the line that separated honor and damnation. 

The female warrior inspected the helmet in her armored hands one more time. Her own helmet was a shining gold colored beskar alloy, with intricate filigree that bordered the uniquely shaped T-visor and small zabrak horns adorned the crown; the helmet clearly a creation of her design. She checked her craftsmanship, not only did she reglaze the visor, she also repainted the markings. The headpiece looked as fresh as the day Din Djarin received it to give to the foundling.

“I still do not understand why you did not wish me to reforge your helmet altogether.” The Armorer asked Talyc without turning her head to the partition.

“Call me sentimental, but I happen to like it. It reminds me of home.” The mandalorian answered from behind the partition that the armorer was kind enough to have a bench for her fellow Mandalorians to at least sit while they waited naked without the mark of their people. 

“You have been a Mandalorian for ten years, Talyc Solus. You know very well that there is no home for our people except the white sands of Mandalore.”

“If I have learned one thing in my life, it’s that home can be people rather than places.” Talyc quipped.

“So speaks one of the Clan of Three. Djarin seems to share the same sentiment, Gar buy’ce _Your helmet_.” The Armorer replied to Talyc’s words with no emotion as she handed him his helmet; careful not to venture too close to the partition to see his face. He reached out with an armored hand and grabbed the headpiece and reclaimed his identity. “Seeing as the Child is still with him.”

Talyc paused before putting his mask on, The thought of Vod’ika had always brought a soft smile to his face. The mandalorian realized how lucky the Child was, that he was with a family who had kept him safe for almost twenty five years, and with that epiphany Talyc felt a visit with his tribe was needed once all this First Order nonsense was over. Talyc donned his helmet and emerged from behind the partition.

“What do I owe you, vod _sister_?” 

Talyc could feel through the Force that the Armorer smiled from behind her helmet, “Your presence is payment enough, foundling. And tell Djarin to take the child home,” she chided the younger Mandalorian before shooing him away.

Before Talyc opened the door to leave he turned to the Armorer to add, “To some of us home isn’t a planet. If you knew Vod’ika _little Brother_ like I do, you’d know he found his home a long time ago. This is the Way.”

“This is the Way,” the Armorer repeated with a knowing nod as Talyc walked out of the Armory.

**

“Han Solo! General Organa! Taking a romantic getaway, I see!” Maz Teased the older couple among the hustle and bustle of the cantina as she came to greet them both with a warm embrace.

“We could only wish, Maz, you old bag of bones,” Han retorted as he returned the Pirate Queen’s affections, “we’re actually on some serious business.”

Maz looked are her old friend’s eyes thoughtfully and smiled; she turned to Leia and upon seeing the brown eyes that mirrored her lost son’s, the old creature felt a pang of guilt in knowing a secret she knew, for the sake of the boy, she had to keep. Never in the millennia she lived had she seen the same eyes in two different people in one day.

The Force was playing a strange game.

Appearing not far behind the Resistance generals were three young humans, Maz recognized one of the three as the famous pilot everyone always talks about, but the younger two were unfamiliar to her.

“Finn, Rose,” Leia spoke turning to the unknown younglings and gesturing them to step forward, “let me introduce you to Maz Kanata.”

“Nice to meet you, Maz,” Finn said politely as he reached out his hand to shake Maz’s in introduction.

The Pirate Queen looked at Finn and saw the Force surrounding him. “Likewise, Finn,” she replied taking his hand in her own before looking over to the young woman named Rose.

Rose was of medium build, with a tan coverall suit that concealed her figure, and heavy work boots on her feet. Her face was round with a button nose, full lips, and dark almond shaped eyes both determined and kind, with raven black hair tied in a messy yet functional bun. 

“It’s an honor to meet you, Queen Kanata, you’ve been an inspiration to my sister and I since we were children,” Rose said with a warm smile as they shook hands. Maz had seen many hopeful souls in her many years of life, but none had shimmered so bright and so pure as the woman who stood before her.

“You flatter this old wretch,” Maz laughed a small chiming sound that broadened the smile on Rose’s face. “Now,” the Pirate Queen turned to Leia and Han, her tone now serious, “let’s get everyone to one of my private rooms to discuss this ‘serious business’ of yours.”

“Good, but there’s one more in our party, and we’re not sure if he has arrived yet,” Leia added as the group walked through the cantina towards a wall of doors that lead to the private conference rooms.

“Yeah, some wise-cracking Mando.” Han chimed in as he walked beside his wife, “sure gave Poe a start, let me tell you.” He turned and looked back at Finn and Poe who walked side by side behind him and Leia. “Speakin’ of which, Maz, you really ought to ask ol’ Spice Runner about Hapes.”

“Let’s not talk about Hapes!” Finn and Poe exclaimed in unison, coaxing out a chuckle from Han and Rose. The two men quickly turned to look at each other, surprised that they spoke at the same time, before looking away with the same speed; their cheeks and ears darkening with a heavy blush.

‘Oh my, to be young again,’ Maz thought to herself with a smile.

Then it clicked.

The Generals said they were waiting for a Mandalorian.

“You said a Mandalorian is expected to be present at your meeting?” Maz spoke in a hushed tone.

Han and Leia nodded and what the old creature heard next confirmed Maz’s suspicions.

“Talyc Solus is his name.”

Maz froze upon hearing General Organa’s words. Maker, what strange plan does the Force have for this family!? She should not be surprised, the Force always played games with the Skywalkers since the mysterious birth of Anakin years before.

“Talyc arrived a short time ago,” Maz announced to the group. “He should be heading back from the Mandalorian Armory shortly.”

“Very well, see to it that he finds us if you run into him.”

“Of course, General Organa.”

Maz opened the door to the private room with a card key before handing it to Leia and turning around to disappear into the crowd, unaware of the suspecting eyes of the Princess General behind her.

**

“What in the Force are you doing, Boy!?” Maz scolded Talyc in a low furious whisper, as she not only demanded to know why the estranged, assumed long dead, son of Han Solo and Leia Organa was seeking their council; but what in the hell-fires of Mustafar was he doing snooping around in the deepest darkest parts of her domain!?

The mandalorian stopped in the dimly lit hallway and slowly turned to the ancient alien. His body language was slow and unsteady as if he had just woke up.

“I don’t- I don’t know how I got here.” His voice was quiet and he began to look around as if he was searching for the source of a sound the Pirate Queen could not hear.

Maz began to feel it as well, the Force was humming a dissonant current throughout the hallway. Surely there was no way. It had been silent for nearly thirty years. But, then again, strange things had been happening all day, what was one more thread in the colorful tapestry the Force was weaving.

The Pirate Queen hurried her steps to catch up with her guest and held onto his elbow with a delicate hand.

“This way, Boy, I know what has led you down here,” her voice was still low, but more comforting and soft, almost sad as she led him forward. 

They walked down to the end of the hall and turned right until they reached an old weathered door, small patches of fungus bloomed from the wood grain, swollen from years of the old hallway’s humidity.

Talyc instinctively reached for the rusted handle but stopped before he turned to Maz. She nodded at him to proceed, granting him the permission he silently asked for. The old rusted hinges scream out into the otherwise quiet hallway as the door was forced open after so many years untouched and forgotten. 

The room was not much to look at. With mossy stone shelves built into the walls and a single small window by the ceiling that leaked a stream of Takodona’s sunshine from the surface. The storage room was empty except for a small chest on the floor.

There it was, the epicenter of the cries of the Force. Whatever was inside that chest demanded to be released from its decades long imprisonment.

Maz stood in the doorway as the mandalorian walked to the chest and knelt down before it. The Force beckoned him, bellowing into the air around him, as he lifted the damp lid of the chest. His heartbeat was pounding in his ears; out of fear or curiosity, Talyc was unsure. He let the lid of the chest fall back, its small hinges squeaking as the lid free-fell until it was caught on the stone wall behind it.

This chest was full of a bunch of junk! Nothing but spare parts and ancient baubles with the exception of the source of the Force’s siren song. An old metal rod with indentations and divots along its length and a small button on its side. Talyc knew right away what the old item was, but why the stars would the relic call to him of all people? 

It was a lightsaber, pre-Clone War era judging by the style of the hilt. Talyc reached for the antique weapon as the Force sang out into the air so strong that Maz could nearly see it warping the air around the room.

The moment the tips of his fingers touched the steel hilt of the Jedi sword, so cold from its years of isolation that the mandalorian could feel it though his glove, a barrage of images flashed violently in Talyc’s mind. He tried to pull his hand away, but his hand was seized in place, grasping the lightsaber tightly as if the Force refused to allow him the strength to let it go.

Force, stars, and Maker help him for the things he saw were physically painful to see:

He saw the blue light of the very saber in his hand glow as it struck down children.

His grandfather’s decent into madness.

Feeling the searing pain of Anikin’s legs as they were effortlessly sliced from his body by Obi-Wan’s saber. Talyc could feel on his skin beneath his armor the pain of Mustafar’s fire as it burned his grandfather’s flesh. 

The mandalorian shed Obi-Wan Kenobi’s tears of shame and failure from his hidden eyes.

Then came the pain of Luke’s hand being severed from his wrist that climbed up his arm.

Talyc believed the agony he felt, both mentally and physically, was going to kill him. Maz, unable too see the visions herself, lowered her head as she felt though the Force the pain that the mandalorian continued to endure.

No longer were the visions about his grandfather and his uncle:

Now he saw a Darthomirian Nightsister and a Jedi Knight running from a battlefield hand in hand. 

A man who resembled the Jedi, was flying his family in a shuttle vessel. The the Nightsister held a small child close to comfort them.

A ship flies into the sky as a small hand reaches up desperately, the cries of a young girl fill Talyc’s ears.

He sees himself destroying everything around him in his anger as a young boy.

He hears the whispers of the Dark that he had not heard since he was found by Din Djarin and the Child.

He recounts his soul devouring loneliness as he saw himself being shipped away with Luke.

Talyc’s chest burns once again as he saw and felt Luke plunge his lightsaber into him as the Jedi Master struck him down on the white sands of Mandalore.

But with that pain he felt the warm healing light of the Force given to him by the Child.

He hears the scream of freedom through the Force that unleashed when he donned his Helmet and new identity.

The mandalorian saw the same hand that reached out for the ship, only reaching up to the moon as if it was the source of freedom she felt call to her in the Force.

The last vision that came to Talyc was of himself unarmored in a cave battling a masked cloaked warrior wielding a crackling lightsaber with beams of red light that also shot out from the cross guards.

And the palled gray blue body of Rey laying on barren dirt, her eyes dull and lifeless as they stared up into a sky neither of them could see.

With a sharp intake of breath, Talyc’s consciousness returned to the waking world as the lightsaber he held seemed to push him away. He could feel the cold sweat that began to bead out of every pore on his covered skin as he heaved heavy breaths.

“You keep that karking thing away from me!” The mandalorian cried out breathlessly as he pushed himself back against the adjacent wall, trying to level his breathing and slow his racing heart.

“That lightsaber has sat here for almost thirty years in silence. I’m sorry, but it calls to you for a reason, Boy. And by your honor to your found people, Mandalorian, you must accept this quest as a warrior,” Maz informed Talyc as she walked into the room, reaching down to grab the Jedi sword effortlessly and sitting down next to the Mandalorian against the wall. She held the lightsaber out to him as she continued, “If it is Darkness that you fear, Boy, remember that this blade was Luke’s for a short time.”

That information did not ease Talyc’s spirit.

Maz pulled the Mandalorian's armored hand with her own and placed the Lightsaber in his palm, closing his fingers around the hilt. The waning hum of the Force emanated from the kyber crystal within.

“Even if you are merely holding it to pass it on to another, you are obligated to the Force to do so, Ben Solo, for it is your birthright.”

‘Ben’, it had been so long since he heard that name that it drew a chill up his spine. Talyc tightened his grip on the lightsaber and placed it on his utility belt between his knife and his blaster. Without the visions plaguing his mind, and the kyber crystal within now sleeping and quiet, the relic seemed harmless on the mandalorian’s hip. 

“Honor and duty are two different things, Maz,” Talyc tried to argue as he sighed, “it seems that may be what has separated the Jetiise _Jedi_ from the Mando _Mandalorians_ for thousands of years.” 

The Pirate Queen was quiet as she mulled over the words the boy spoke before a loud boisterous laugh erupted from her small body.

“You silly little fool! The Mandalorian-Jedi conflict is not due to ethical differences!” She paused between another bout laughter. Standing up and offering her hand to help the man who sat on the floor speechless and looking up at her. She could feel his confusion radiate from his Force-signature. “Everyone knows that Mandalorians have hated the Jedi simply because they despise anything or anyone that they cannot defeat easily!”

Talyc took her hand and to his surprise, once again, she hoisted him to his feet with remarkable ease.

“But you never know,” Maz cajoled with a smile, “with your reputation as a Mandalorian and your Jedi bloodline, you just may do the unthinkable.” She walked ahead of Talyc out of the room, the Mandalorian following behind her.

“And what would that be?” He asked as he left the small room after the Pirate Queen.

“Why, bring them together of course!” Maz answered with a smile as if the Force told her a secret she wished to reveal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gar buy’ce [boo-shay] - your helmet
> 
> Jetiise - jedi (plural)
> 
> Mando - Mandalorian person/people


	9. Operation Nova

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Resistance makes a plan to rescue Rey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap everyone 50 kudos!!! I can't thank you all enough!! If you like this story please share it. 
> 
> Updates will be slowing down soon as I only have 2 more chapters completed before the typed up chapters are caught up with what I have written by hand. I also may be going back to work next week, but that right now is still up in the air.
> 
> Alytology and alykazamfanfiction are my tumblr blogs look me up and follow for chapter updates and fangirl trash if you want. 
> 
> Stay safe and healthy everyone.

“Talyc Solus, how nice of you to finally join us,” General Ograna quipped from her seat at the head of an ornately carved table at the center of the room.

Thank the stars the mandalorian wore a mask over his face, as the subtle scolding he just received turned him into a blushing boy.

“My apologies, General, I was _indisposed_ for a short time,” Talyc explained as he walked to his seat at the table, sitting down at Leia’s left. The light catching the Skywalker lightsaber and reflecting up from its place on his hip, catching the General’s eye.

“Is my father’s lightsaber the reason you were...indisposed?” Leia questioned the Mandalorian beside her with great curiosity.

“As a matter of fact,...General, it was,” Talyc replied, pausing for emphasis on his mother’s title that the Princess of Alderaan had earned throughout the decades in the Resistance.

Maker be damned, he almost called her ‘mother’. Talyc had to get out of this meeting as soon as possible and get off of this planet!

“Very well,” General Organa accepted the Mandalorian ’s reasons for being late; his dangerous near miss went unnoticed as she stood up from her seat. Her hands met behind her back as she walked around the room. “We have much to discuss and little time to do so,” she finished speaking while gesturing to Han Solo, Poe Dameron, and the man known only as Finn.

“As you have been made familiar with my husband, General Han Solo, our master pilot, Poe Dameron, and Mr. Finn, I’ll skip the formalities. However,” Leia stopped, standing behind a young woman with fair olive skin, black straight hair tied up and shapely dark eyes, “this young lady in attendance is Rose Tico, one of our mechanics and quite possibly our most knowledgeable engineer in the Resistance. But she is here today on the count of her information gathering within the First Order.”

“So in other words a spy?” Talyc asked in an unintentionally gruff tone.

“Well nice to meet you too!” Rose snapped back in a voice as calm as she could muster, “But no, I simply have made regular contact with a defector on the inside,” she ends her words while placing her hands on the table and leans in making eye contact with everyone in attendance, “and my voice on the inside says that Starkiller base is a cataclysmic super weapon, capable of destroying entire planetary systems. The sooner we get the Force-sensitive and destroy that monstrosity the better.” 

The room grew tense and silent before Talyc broke the quiet air around them.

“...Rey...” The mandalorian’s voice was soft and quiet.

“I’m sorry?” Rose questioned the armored man across from her, concern showing on her on her face.

“Her name is Rey, and she’s more than her connection to the Force,” Talyc could not hide a part of himself from his last life that ached upon hearing how the mechanic reduced the scavenger to her gift. Being observed as an object of power was something that he was all too familiar with, and knew that tragedy would only follow. It was his connection with the Force that caused the battle between the Light and Dark which ultimately led to his demise and rebirth. 

So help him Talyc would not allow the same fate to come for Rey of Jakku.

Much to his surprise, Talyc’s words reached the Resistance mechanic as she nodded solemnly and leaned back in her seat, thinking carefully about what she was about to say next.

“My apologies, Mr. Solus, my words were insensitive. It seems my communicarooms with the First Order have followed me here in a bad way. I’ll try to be more mindful in the future.”

Once again the room was tense and quiet.

“Alright, back to business,” Han interrupted the growing dark atmosphere of the meeting as he stood up from his seat and buried his hands in the front pockets of his pants. Everyone stopped and looked to him to continue speaking, but was met with the old smugger shrugging his shoulders and looking at all of them as if they all became a bunch of Hutts before his very eyes.

“What? Don’t look at me, Rose has the floor!” Han said as he pulled a hand from one of his pockets and gestured to the woman who was speaking prior.

Leave it to Han Solo to capture everyone’s attention just to pass it on to someone else, and to shine light in the dark when people began to feel hopeless. A growing familiar ache returned to his heart as Talyc thought about his father’s willingness to lighten a serious situation.

Talyc Solus was certain that his parents were going to be the death of him.

“Oh! Right,” Rose stammered as she stood up from her own seat to address the rest of the room.

“Starkiller, according to my source, is not just a super weapon base. It’s an entire planet that harvests the energy of a nearby star only to redirect that energy to any celestial systems in the Galaxy. The For- sorry- _Rey_ is currently being held captive and questioned about her knowledge of the whereabouts of any or all Resistance bases in the Galaxy at Starkiller. If First Order officers cannot get the information from her, they will have the Knights of Ren interrogate her.”

“The Knights of Ren?” Poe asked with deep concern for his scavenger friend as he noticed the change in Rose’s tone.

“My source tells me that the Knights of Ren are a small but powerful group of warriors that work with the First Order under Supreme Leader Snoke; however, they do not consider themselves part of the First Order. Because the First Order has no dominion over the Knights, their methods of gathering information and their tactical endeavors are even more questionable than that of the First Order itself. There is a total of seven in the group, their leader is a humanoid man simply known as Ren.”

A hush swept the room for the third time during the deliberation until Finn asked, “can these ‘knights’ use the Force?”

Talyc turned his head to Finn, realization dawning on him about the black armored warrior from Jakku. He thought of the masked soldier who crushed his throat and squeezed the air from his lungs while injecting him with fear through the Force. The fact that there were more warriors like that caused dread to slither up the mandalorian’s spine.

“I never had the chance to tell you,” Talyc addressed the men in the room as he kept his eyes on Finn, “as we were distracted with other matters on the Falcon, but it was one of these Knights of Ren that had subdued me and took Rey into First Order custody. If they are all like the one I encountered, these men or creatures are forces to be reckoned with. They utilize the Dark side of the Force. What’s worse is that they are not tied to Sith ideals, this makes them and their power different, they are untamed, making them incredibly dangerous.”

“More like terrifying,” Finn added looking back at the mandalorian, “when we escaped the cantina and realized Rey was still in there fighting, I felt something, like her spirit. And I felt yours too! I turned back to run to the cantina and then I felt something else. Something so dark and horrible it froze my feet in place, I was afraid to move! Not long after that we found you with your face in the dirt.”

The defector started to bounce his foot nervously as he recounted the events from the day before until he felt a heavy, gentle hand that found its way to his thigh. Finn’s eyes met Poe’s and as he looked into his companion’s tranquil mahogany irises, his nerves seemed to settle.

Minutes passed as Rose Tico continued her lecture about the base and its weak points as she laid out the mission plan. The goal of the mission was to find Rey, and then reach the thermal oscillator. Once the thermal oscillator was found it would need to be overloaded by destroying the control panels that regulate the power flow that the base pulled from the star. After that the base would destroy itself within the hour from the inside out.

Talyc listened quietly to Rose’s instructions until a strange hum overloaded his senses, and before he knew what was happening he saw her.

He saw Rey.

She seemed to materialize out of thin air behind Rose, her back was turned from everyone as she looked on at a sight Talyc could not see. Her Force signature bled out with fear and desperation. An unseen force pushed her down to her knees and the mandalorian began to hear her voice shaking with rage and tears.

“I told you, I don’t know anything!”

“Flower Queen! This is Autumn Leaves, please respond immediately!” A static ridden voice interrupted the mechanic’s mission plan. Talyc immediately placed a name on the voice upon hearing the code name through the comlink.

Without a second thought Rose pulled the comlink from one of her many coverall pockets and immediately responded to the call, ignoring the stares in her direction from the other members of the group. Talyc could feel her worry creep into the Force, but he also noticed her elation as she heard his voice.

This foolish mechanic had feelings for the First Order General!

“I told you already! I don’t know where they are!” Rey cried out, her words unheard by everyone in the room except the mandalorian.

“I need to know where you are,” Hux’s voice called out into the room.

“I can’t tell you that! You know the terms of our agreement!” Rose shouted into the com.

“Stop! What are you doing!?” Rey’s pleas became frantic as she struggled on her knees against another unseen force that continued to hold her in place.

The mandalorian felt like this was a trap.

“For the love of the Maker, Flower, are you in the Hosnian System or not!?”

No, this was not a trap, this was a warning! Talyc’s breathing became fast and heavy as his beating heart as he looked between Rose and Rey. The scavenger’s screams becoming incoherent cries as she begged whoever was on the other side of this strange plane of existence that he shared with her to stop what they were about to do.

“Answer me, Flower! Please.” Autumn Leaves’ voice finally begs through the link in a weak voice, “I just need to know if this is goodbye.” 

If the circumstances were different, if Talyc was not fearing for Rey’s safety and he did not feel the coming catastrophe, he would have rolled his eyes over the fact that the General’s feelings for the mechanic were mutual.

Rose resigns her position against Hux and assures him through the comlink with a voice that mirrored his weakness, “No, we’re not in the Hosnian System. Autumn...what’s happening out there?”

“They’re activating it,” was all that Hux managed to answer.

“No! No! No! Please!”

“Activating what!?”

“STOP!” Rey screeches at the top of her lungs as her body catches a bright light from an unknown source.

“Starki-”

The feed cuts into static and strange interference sounds. Leia and Finn jump from their seats, beads of sweat glistened on Finn’s forehead and tears rolled down the General’s cheeks unwillingly.

Talyc; however, heard a wail of pain in the distance but felt his throat become raw with the beastly sound he heard. He felt everything, the mass genocide taking place, Rey’s empathy and hopelessness, the Force burning and writhing over the immense loss of life. The mandalorian’s vision grew white as the screams he now knew came from him began to fade, competing with the sounds of wood and plaster snapping and cracking as his vision was swallowed in black. The last thing Talyc could remember was hearing the dying howls that came from him as his consciousness faded, cursing the Force with every thought he struggled to manifest as he fell into the darkness of an exhaustion undesired.

**

“You ready to talk _now_ , Scavenger?”

Rey could barely comprehend the words that came from a nameless First Order officer as he spat out the command. Her focused remained on the star speckled space where the Hosnian system used to be on the large holoscreen. Everyone on the bridge of Starkiller base returned to their normal duties as if blowing up an entire star system to dust was part of the First Order’s day to day. All the while tears flowed like small rivers from the scavenger’s eyes as she felt her soul being ripped into pieces over the abominable horror she had witnessed.

The entire Hosnian system was gone, every single life form was now stardust scattered across the black void of space.

Yet despite her agonizing grief, Rey felt a whisper from the farthest and darkest reaches of her heart call to her. 

_Kill them._

_Kill them all!_

Two stormtroopers approached her and grabbed her pliant body to drag her away by the arms to her holding cell. She allowed their white plastoid fingers to dig painfully into her biceps as she had lost the will to fight the moment the bright light shined its death by brilliance upon the planets and their inhabitants, leaving nothing but darkness in its wake.

While the troopers dragged her off the bridge, Rey saw the mirage of the Mandalorian she had just met, but felt as if she had known her whole life the moment he saw his dark eyes that she broke through glass and steel to see. She watched him as he lay silent and unmoving in a crumpled heap at the other end of the bridge, invisible to the officers and soldiers that walked around and through him as they carried on with their business. 

Rey did not question how or why she saw the Mandalorian instead of the man who had come to her in strange dreams and bent realities. Any lingering hope she held onto since she was hauled away from her home like contraband was left behind with him as the door slid shut before her after the troopers dragged her off of the bridge.

**

“Give him some space, will ya?”

“Should we remove his helmet?”

“Absolutely not! You do that and he is at risk of being dar’manda!”

“A what, General?”

“His soul would be damned! Don’t you children know anything about other cultures in this kriffing galaxy!?”

“Will you all just calm down! He’s starting to move!”

Talyc’s eyes slowly opened as he looked around the room with the same sluggish pace as he tried to gather himself. His head was pounding and his throat was sore and dry as the white sands of his home.

The Force was cruel as it was giving and just. The mandalorian could not shake that thought from him as he pushed himself up from the floor, seeing the faces of everyone in the room as they surrounded him wearing worry on their faces.

“Easy, Mando, you gave us quite the scare,” Poe cautioned the bounty hunter as reached over to help Talyc to his feet. He turned to face the Resistance pilot, cringing over that kriffing name he continued to call him.

“I told you not to call me that.” Talyc deadpanned to Poe.

“Clearly his wit is still intact,” Han quipped as he shook his head over the Mandalorian’s stubborn nature. Talyc was growing on him. Part of the old smuggler wondered if his lost son would have been so stubborn if he had the chance to grow up. Han decided to lock that thought away as he leaned back against the table, crossing his arms as he did so.

Talyc glanced around the room as he regained his balance and relieved Poe of holding him steady. The room was in shambles, the chair he once sat in was broken in small pieces throughout the floor. Long jagged cracks sprawled out in destructive branches along the walls. The mandalorian felt bile rise in his throat. He contained urge to empty his stomach as he look on at he damage throughout the room, there was little reason for him to doubt that he did this. Talyc had not had a destructive outburst like this since he was training under Luke at the Jedi Temple.

The mandalorian was coaxed from his thoughts as a gentle hand reached for his own. Before he realized what was happening, Leia carefully, as if approaching an injured animal, pulled Talyc into an embrace full of all the love and comfort that she had been holding onto and saving for someone else. But deep within her the mandalorian could feel through the Force the regret that burned within her heart that she could not give the love she had to the one whom she saved it for.

No one in the Galaxy but Talyc knew the truth, that her regret was not needed as the one she wanted to embrace was in her arms hidden behind the iron skin of the people who saved him. His heart quaked in his ribcage and he fought back the tears that welled in his eyes as he returned her hold. He knew Leia loved him, he knew it was hard for her to balance her duty to the Galaxy and her desire to be a mother to her only son. But to feel how deeply she cared for Ben through the warmth in her arms was more than enough for the mandalorian to let go of any lingering anger he had held onto all those years he spent on his own and with his clan.

Talyc wanted to say so much; that he forgave her, that he missed her, that he loved her dearly and had refused to let her and his father fade away with the past he walked away from. Because sometimes, alone in the black with his thoughts about the darkness of his past, the love in his life that he both lost and gained was the only thing that helped him move forward.

These words died on Talyc’s tongue and never escaped his lips, sealed by his life debt and love for the Child, Din, and the Mandalorian people. 

Leia pulled herself away just enough to look at the Mandalorian as she reached up and placed her hand, soft and wrinkled with age, on his buy’ce as if trying to cradle the face hidden behind it.

“Your power with the Force is untamed, not unlike our lost son. His…waves…as I used to call them, were quite different. Full of pain that I…that _we_ did not know how to soothe. If only he had met someone like you, who understood the pain he felt through his connection with the Force. To this day I believe if he wasn’t alone, he would still be with us.” Her voice was soft and solemn when she spoke.

Hearing his mother admit her failure to him and the others, Talyc his stomach sink like a stone in water.

“I am sorry the Force took someone so precious to you,” Talyc’s voice quivered with so many emotions swirling around him that it was difficult to speak. He thought of Rey and how alone she had felt her whole life; how the one Ben needed was not this Mandalorian who stood before the General, but was quite possibly the scavenger girl they were hatching a plan to save. 

“I assure you I am not alone in my pain,” the mandalorian placed his armored hand over the one the General had cradled his face with, “but we must rescue the scavenger girl from the First Order. Otherwise, I will be.”

Finn stepped forward his dark brown eyes burned with determination, “I’m with Talyc, we have to go.” He turned to the Mandalorian who just one day before had captured him for a bounty that started this whole mess. He nodded to Talyc, who returned the gesture. “We want to save our friend! We need to save Rey!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dar'manda - damned or exiled. No longer mandalorian.
> 
> Buy'ce - helmet


	10. Starkiller Raid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mission to save Rey begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone is safe and healthy out there. I may be going back to work by the end of the week. Until then I will try to type up what I have written by then. 
> 
> I updated the tags in the description. And will be doing so again as the story progresses.
> 
> There's a short explanation of the colors of Ben/Talyc's armor.
> 
> Enjoy and comment if you wanna talk about the story. I have been enjoying the conversations I have had so far!

The plan was set in motion. Talyc flew alone on the Mythosaur while Han and Chewbacca manned the Millennium Falcon, harboring Finn and Poe along with them. The flight itself was easy, the difficult part was managing to land on Starkiller Base without the First Order blowing them out of the sky as they tried make planetfall. The plan was to maneuver the vessels so that once within range the Mythosaur would have a tractor beam targeted on the Falcon and land on Starkiller with the impression that Talyc had apprehended Han Solo and the others on board as a bounty. 

“This is Black Beskar hailing Starkiller Base from the Kom’rk-class vessel Mythosaur, requesting permission to land,” Talyc sent out the transmission to the communications bay on the surface after hailing the planet base through an audio comlink. 

“This is Starkiller, state your reason for entry.” The voice of an unknown officer replied through the audio feed.

“I have in my custody some marks that the First Order offered a price for.”

“What are the names of the marks on board?”

“I have obtained Han Solo of the Rebellion as well as his companion Chewbacca, Poe Dameron the Resistance Pilot, and the defected Stormtrooper known as FN-2187. Do I have permission to land?”

The com was silent for a few moments too long before the officer’s voice returned, “This is Starkiller base granting permission to the Mythosaur for landing. Coordinates for the base’s entrance will be sent to your ship’s navigation computer.”

Talyc released the breath he held in his lungs before setting his controls in order to prepare for landing.

**

Once the Mythosaur landed with the Millennium Falcon in tow, Talyc entered the Corellian freighter with four sets of handcuffs to restrain the other members of the mission. The mandalorian felt sick to his stomach having to place his father, uncle, and comrades in restraints to add to the illusion that this was simply a body drop, not a rescue attempt and revenge plot for destroying the Hosnian system.

As he cuffed the rebels, Talyc gave explicit instructions about what they were expected to do when the operation began once inside the hangar.

“I’m going to say this one more time. When the restraints are loose, put your hands forward immediately. Understood?” he instructed while fastening the cuffs on their wrists behind their backs.

“You’re the boss, Mando,” Poe answered the mandalorian with a playful smirk on his lip as Talyc cuffed the pilot’s hands behind his back.

Talyc turned to the pilot and pointed a stiff finger at him before leading them down the Falcon’s gangplank and onto the snow covered surface of Starkiller’s planetary disguise; sincerely debating a way to somehow leave the snarky pilot behind when the time to escape the death planet came. 

The four men and the Wookiee marched through the icy landscape to the Base entrance in single file, with the bounty hunter in last place, providing the facade that if anyone tried to escape or step out of line, he could simply shoot them down with the blaster rifle he held in his hands as he followed them to their future prison. Chewbacca was at the head of the line, then Finn, Poe, and Han being the last of the prisoners being taken to the First Order.

The walk to the base was quiet, the gravity of the mission slowly adding pressure onto the men the closer they came to the open hangar in the distance.

“Talyc,” Han asked softly to the figure behind him without turning around to take a look while he continued to walk forward.

“Yes?” the mandalorian answered the smuggler. He was taken aback by the way Han addressed him. Not ‘tin can’ or ‘Mando', the old rebel called him by his name.

“You were a foundling. Correct?”

“I was.” Talyc answered Han’s question. His soul felt as if the threads that haphazardly held him together since he was eighteen were starting to fray with every inquiry his father was suddenly curious enough to ask.

“If you don’t mind, would it hurt if I asked you what your name was?”

Talyc stopped and, after they kept going for a few steps, the rest of the line stood still in the cold. Finn and Poe turned around to watch and eavesdrop before Chewbacca gave them a low bark, telling them to mind their own business.

Han turned around to face the Mandalorian at the end of the line. The crow’s feet that sat on the edges of the old smuggler's eyes could not hide the youthful spark contained within them. But his white hair and unshaven whiskers on his jaw and chin revealed the age and exhaustion on his father’s face as the old man stepped forward and stood before the bounty hunter.

“Talyc,” Han continued to walk towards his son, stopping just close enough so that the mandalorian could see the scar on Han’s chin; a small canyon among the field of white grass. His father had never told Ben the truth about that scar; every time he asked as a child the story was grandiose and captivating, but never the same. Han Solo was not only a master smugger and pilot, he was also a king of tall tales. “Are you my son Ben?”

The sheer bravery of Han’s question shook Talyc to the very core of his being. Stars he wanted to tell his father ‘yes’, the mandalorian wanted nothing more than to embrace the old man and tell him how he became one of the most feared and admired pilots in the Galaxy in honor of the father he thought he was never going to see again. He wanted nothing more than to share with his father the life of adventure he finally got to have after being abandoned by Luke and presumed dead because he was finally free of the burdens of the Jedi Way. He wanted to tell Han that the voices that infected his mind and heart with Darkness in his youth had disappeared and that his son Ben had been a free man for ten lonely, but very eventful, years. 

Talyc wanted, more than anything in that moment, to hear his father call him by his name.

But the mandalorian’s loyalty to the family that saved his life and taught him all the things he learned in order to survive the dangers of a bounty hunter’s path. The tribe who was there to teach him about the light of the Galaxy once he was free to decide his own fate kept the words in his throat before he swallowed them. And nearly twenty years of heartache remained contained from pouring out as he tried to think of a way to divert from the question his father asked.

The Galaxy was not fair, the mandalorian knew this his whole life, but he wanted to tell Han the truth. He wanted his father to know that his dead son was alive, and though the smuggler would never see the face behind the mask, the old man could die knowing his son grew up to be a strong man unbound by family namesakes and obligations to the Light Side of the Force. Talyc thought for a moment if there was some way he could answer his father’s question without dishonoring himself in the process. He looked down at his father’s scar once more and wondered. 

“How did you get that scar?” Talyc asked the Resistance General, feigning that he was trying to divert away from the question the old smuggler had asked him.

Han blinked his eyes, bewildered by the question the Mandalorian had asked him before he laughed to himself. Only one person was smart enough to know that the story behind that old wound was always a lie, and the old man understood.

“Do you want the good story, or do you want the truth?” Han asked looking up and giving a smirk to the covered face of the man be believed to be his son. The old man had no tangible proof, but he had hope. And if he knew anything in this confounded Galaxy, it was that hope was not much but it had the potential to be everything in the right hearts, minds, and hands.

The mandalorian remained silent, something within the Force told him that this very well could be the last time he had the chance to talk like this with his father. Talyc begged the Force to not let it end too soon.

Han took another step closer to Talyc, gesturing with a nod of his head to beckon the Mandalorian down to his level. If this tin can was indeed his son, the boy’s real father must have been a tree because he was too damn tall to be human.

Talyc leaned down and Han whispered near where he assumed the Mandalorian’s ear was beneath the helmet, telling the closely guarded secret that now only he and the bounty hunter knew.

The mandalorian straightened up from the shock of what his father had told him, that something so mundane was the truth behind a scar that contained so many stories. “Really,” was all Talyc could manage to say in a low whisper.

Han smiled before turning around and walking back in line with the others, “I know, pretty dumb if you ask me,” he said to Talyc as he made his way back to pretending to be a prisoner. After nudging Poe to get the line moving again with his shoulder he added without turning around, “Now c’mon, Mando, we gotta go save the kid!”

Talyc noticed the confident stride in his fathers steps that was not present before their conversation, and felt his heart swell with joy, so much so that he did not bother to correct the old smuggler about that karking name he always insisted on calling him.

**

They, after marching through the blowing cold, finally reached the hangar of Starkiller Base. Much to their surprise, the base was not some grand building on the planet’s surface, but was built within the planet itself. The only indication of the base beneath the surface was the open hangar that lead inside; seemingly open to the elements, but upon reaching the hanger the group noticed the force shield that prevented the ice and cold from blowing into the entrance.

Talyc led the four restrained members of the mission into the sheltered landing bay that the hanger was also used for. The arrangement of the duristeel and glow panels reminded the mandalorian of old holos that displayed the innards of Imperial Star Destroyers used during the Galactic Civil War he would look through when he was a child. If the First Order was successful at anything, it was their drab consistency. The mandalorian quickly looked around to inspect the holes in the First Order’s armor before meeting his gaze with the officer he recognized as Lieutenant Mitaka arriving with four stormtroopers.

By the Maker, this was too perfect.

“Mr. Solus,” The first Order Lieutenant began with an air of feigned confidence and poise. “How unexpected of you to be here. It seems you have been quite busy since Jakku.”

“My work takes precedence.” The mandalorian’s voice was sterile and lacked emotion. A tone that took years and hundreds of negotiations over people’s lives to master.

“...Very well,” Mitaka’s voice faltered slightly, “we will have your payment shortly.” The man paused before he swallowed the lump in his throat. “But first.”

The four stormtroopers readied their weapons, aiming the blaster rifles at the captives.

“We have orders from the Supreme Leader to-”

Talyc released his grip on his rifle leaving the gun to float in the air as he threw out his left hand, sending Mitaka and the white soldiers back with the winds of the Force; simultaniously reaching behind him with his right hand, he released the restraints of his prisoners with hands unseen all at once.

‘Thank the stars the fools held their hands out!’ Talyc thought to himself as he ripped the blasters from the fallen Stormtroopers’ hands, sending them through the air on the waves of the cosmic power that surrounded everyone, to his father and his companions who held their hands out as the mandalorian instructed at the Falcon. Grabbing his own rifle that remained suspended in the air while he threw men and guns around with the Force; all done with the speed and dexterity of a man who had mastered the Force in such a wild way through experience.

There was a pause of confusion among many of the soldiers and officers on the hangar as they watched a Force using Mandalorian make fools of them before blasters were firing from all directions in a horizontal rain of plasma. The group hurried through the hangar; dodging bolts that came their way and firing back at First Order troops. They reached the turbolift and threw themselves into safety. The duristeel doors to the turbolift slid shut, everyone heaved a collective sigh as the lift began to move away from the chaos that they wrought.

“Kriff how are we gonna get through this?!” Poe said between panting breaths. Finn remained silent as he was still trying to process that he was now on the other side of the war.

Han Solo was surprisingly calm, Talyc had remembered that his father fought for the Rebellion years ago during the Galactic Civil War, his first mission was a recovery mission much like the one they were on. It was the operation that led his father to his mother, beginning the landslide that was their tumultuous relationship.

“You guys leave that to me,” the seasoned rebel comforted Finn and Poe. Chewie was no stranger to this sort of undertaking, and Talyc was more than used to fighting for his life outnumbered and coming out alive and thriving.

“Chewie,” Han spoke to his oldest friend, “You go with the tin can and find the kid. Finn, Poe, you both are coming with me. It’s time for a change of clothes.”

**

“Sprout,” Chewbacca growled and grumbled in his strange language as he and the Mandalorian ran through the halls and corridors of the First Order base, “are you gonna use the Force to find her?”

Talyc tried to ignore his furry uncle as he called him by the old nick name while concentrating on finding Rey’s Force-signature. Leave it to the Wookiee to figure things out! 

“You shouldn’t call me that,” Talyc tried to lie as he shot down a few stormtroopers before he returned to a sprint with the large creature that ran beside him, “I’m not who you think I am!”

“Sprout, I am large and smelly! Not stupid!” The Wookiee’s roar vibrated the panels as they turned to steal away in a dead end, readying their rifles in case anyone found them during their conversation. Chewie grabbed the beskar pauldron and gave Talyc a gentle shake, “You smell like Sprout. And smells don’t change, even if people do.” His brown eyes were as soft and caring as Talyc remembered when he was a boy.

Sometimes at the Jedi Temple, when he was alone trying to meditate, Talyc recalled how often he missed his Uncle Chewie the most. As a child the Wookiee seemed to understand him better than his parents. He certainly was much more open about his affections with the young boy than the senator and the scoundrel. 

Leave it to the Wookiee to figure things out.

Talyc sighed, resigning his fight to hide who he was from Chewbacca any longer. _Let him win_ , his father would tell him and everyone else. Chewbacca placed a heavy furry hand on top of Talyc’s head and mimicked ruffling his hair like he used to.

“I understand,” Chewie growled, “that who you are now is a new person. But to me, you will always be Sprout. You’re Mandalorian now, and that’s a hard life to live. But it’s a noble and good one. Your secret is safe with me.” 

“It’s easier than it looks, Ba’vodu _Uncle_ ,” Talyc’s smile could be heard through his voice as he and the Wookiee, his favorite Uncle, met their foreheads together lovingly as they did when Talyc was a different person with a different name.

Talyc’s heart nearly stopped when he heard the next words his Uncle chose to grunt: 

“I am proud of you.”

For the first time since becoming a Mandalorian, Talyc felt at peace with the fact that he was still, in some ways, Ben Solo. And with that peace his mind became clear as he felt a presence that shined weakly through the Force.

Rey.

She was close and Talyc focused on the scavenger’s Force signature. In his mind’s eye, the Force revealed to him an image of her strapped to an interrogation chair. Her eyes staring up at nothing as her lips moved, repeating a mantra the mandalorian could not hear. Fury began to rise in his blood, had the scavenger not been through enough?! How could the First Order continue to toy with her after knowing that seeing the Hosnian system shatter to stardust broke her?

Then Talyc remembered Rose explaining who the Knights of Ren were and their blatant disregard of morality. Maker help them if they cross his path during this assignment.

“Chewie! I know where Rey is! Follow me!”

Chewbacca roared, proclaiming his loyalty to his found nephew as they stormed their way to recover the scavenger in a blaze of plasma bolts and hand-to-hand combat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talyc's armor is black which is a color that represents justice in Mando culture. His black helmet has a green triangle on each side where his ears would be to represent the Child, and the dark red/maroon around the visor is the same color as Din Djarin's robes that he wore as a child in the Mandalorian series. 
> 
> The helmet not only represents Ben/Talyc's Mandalorian immersion in culture, but also his clan members. That way, no matter where he was, his found family is always with him.
> 
> Green to Mandalorians represents duty. 
> 
> Maroon represents power.


	11. Rey the Unbroken, Han the Defeated

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talyc finds Rey. Han encounters an old enemy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll have an update for the next chapter sometime tomorrow. I managed to type up two chapters today. 
> 
> Hooray there's a Reylo moment!

“They cannot break me...I will not break...”

Rey repeated those words like a prayer throughout the First Order interrogation, and again later when a scarred human wearing a mask with strange red markings entered the room and continued the torture her using the Force. She recalled how he strolled around her like a loth-cat about to play with its prey before granting it the sweet mercy of death. And how he crooned her with a charismatic voice as he entered her mind with the Force, boring its root like strands of Darkness into her brain.

R’iia be damned it was excruciating, but no matter how deep the black rotten roots of the Dark Side of the Force dug into the depths of her mind; no matter how persuasive the creature who called himself Ren seemed to be as he cajoled that she should allow the Darkness to consume her, and that she should become one with the Shadow, she never bent the knee. She never broke. She had nothing to hide. Or so she thought.

Ren told her he saw it, he saw the pull of the Force within her begging for release. That she had great power that would be feared and worshiped when it finally awakened. But he saw the strength of another, a powerful lost soul on a war path in white sand. Ren told the scavenger that if she and the other both followed the Shadow the Galaxy would crumble and submit in the palms of their hands. The man spoke like a soothsaying mad prophet who foresaw power unimagined if she and the other came together.

“They cannot break me...I will not break...” was all Rey willed herself to answer and after hours of gnarled tendrils of the Dark lashing her mind with their single desire to break her, Ren decided to let her ‘rest on his offer’ before he left her alone.

The words Rey repeated then and now, as she was shackled in the restraints of the interrogation chair, were the mantra that helped her survive the harder days she endured on Jakku. Days when rival scavengers would fight to steal what little bounties she found, or slave traffickers that desired to steal her from one terrible life only to sell her into a worse one, or days when she went hungry and empty as the hands that returned to Unkar Plutt’s trading post. Those eight words were a hymn of survival.

“They cannot break me...I will not break...”

She had to survive this one struggle, if not for herself, then for those who died in the Hosnian System calamity. The scavenger thought of the harmonic voice of the billions of screams that cried out into the Force before the deafening silence reigned and tears rolled down from her eyes once again.

“They cannot break me...I will not break...”

Rey wondered if the Resistance would come for her like _he_ said they would; would Talyc find her like he promised back on Jakku? Did her family finally return to Jakku for her only to find an empty AT-AT and the regret that they took too long?

“They cannot break me...I will not break...”

The scavenger heard blasters shooting off from outside of the room. Maybe the Resistance came, and maybe the failed. The last thought careened her into the endless chasm of hopelessness that she feared she would never come out of. The only thing barely keeping her tethered to reality being the words she repeated to herself.

“They cannot break me...I will not break...”

As Rey fell deeper into her despair she heard the faint sound of the door sliding open. So deep in her trance, the scavenger did not see the sheen of beskar that came her way and the towering brown beast beside it.

“They cannot break me...I will not break...”

She had become so closed off within herself that the scavenger did not feel the time worn leather gloves that cradled her face, gloves that smelled of machine oil, blood, sweat, and sand. So boarded within her walls she barely felt the warmth of the hands beneath.

“They cannot break me...I will not break...”

Deep in the darkness of her mind where she hid herself away, Rey felt the presence of another. They reached out to her with their light. It was warm, and the darkness she swam in was illuminated with a shade of blue she had never seen let alone imagined in her dreams. The presence approached her and swaddled her in the warm brilliance, whispering to her, in a low and tranquil voice so familiar, a variation of her personal prayer.

“They did not break you...You are unbroken.”

“They did not break me!” Rey cried into the arms of the presence that held her in the blue radiance and healed her spirit.

The scavenger’s sight returned to her as she whispered “I am unbroken” in unison with the calming voice that called to her and pulled her out of her anguish.

Rey came to the sight of the signature T-visor so close that the tinted glass nearly touched her nose as leather gloves cradled her face with a tenderness she had not felt since before her abandonment. She felt the cool beskar of Talyc’s helmet touching her forehead in a most intimate way. The scavenger thought for a fleeting moment that if fate had played her life differently, if she and the Mandalorian were not on a First Order base but a man and a woman living their lives in this galaxy as a pair of nobodies, would she have the courage to give into her wants and desires for companionship? Could she open her locked up heart to trust him?

She was plucked from her thoughts by the tickle of Chewbacca’s furry paws undoing the restraints and releasing her from the hell that was the karking chair she had been strapped to for however long, only the Maker knew.

Once she was free of the of the interrogation chairs hold, Rey threw herself into Talyc and wrapped her arms around him, pouring every ounce of light and emotion into the embrace. The warmth of the scavenger’s skin seeped through the mandalorian’s armor, stirring a feeling within him that was foreign but he yearned to understand. Rey’s breath on Talyc’s neck as she whispered “thank you” brought a convulsing shudder throughout his body that he failed to contain.

The mandalorian broke the embrace regretfully, both feeling that the separation was too soon, to look over the scavenger inspecting her for any serious injuries.

So help him the First Order will burn to ashes for the sin they committed against her.

“We have to go,” Talyc ordered Chewie and Rey, “we have to find the others and overload the thermal oscillator.

Rey blinked, thinking of the ramifications of such a task, “You’re all going to blow up a planet!?”

“Yes. This forsaken war machine shouldn’t exist.” Talyc spoke, his voice vibrated with determination. The man was never more certain about anything in his life.

The first Order will burn.

“Death is life, Oya’ika. The First Order will die as they lived.” Talyc pulled Rey out of the chair and helped the scavenger regain her footing, looking down at her as he held her hands in his own. “This is the Way.” He assured her before picking up his blaster rifle that was propped against the wall. He reached for a pistol on his belt and handed it to the scavenger. The two warriors nod curtly to each other, steeling their resolve before Chewbacca opened the door and the three stormed the hallways behind it.

**

Poe, Finn, and Han, in full stormtrooper regalia, ran through the twisting, turning pathways that led to the thermal oscillator. Finn could not help but laugh to himself about the absurdity of his situation. Just days ago he was wearing this white armor as a soldier, torn between what he was taught and what he believed; and now he was wearing it again to fight for the very belief that he left the First Order for. Where they were ‘playing dress up’ as Han Solo called it and gunning down the enemy in a way that looked like poorly aimed friendly fire.

Finn felt as if the world was turned upside down, and life had become downright odd!

“This way!” Poe shouted through the voice modulator in his white plastoid helmet, “down this hall and through the door!”

‘We made it!’ Finn thought as the entered the containment room. To say the area was massive was a great understatement. The ginormous sector of the base was lit with red lights and cylindrical in shape. The thermal oscillator stood in the center, a tower that rose up high above the planets surface and deep down below so far that only darkness was visible within the duristeel pit. The only path to the oscillator from the room’s entrance was a single wire lathe catwalk.

The pilot, smuggler, and defector ran across the catwalk to the thermal oscillator. Finn felt around the smooth surface of the oscillator’s duristeel panels to find the seam that opened with a strong pull, revealing the switches and wires of the machine's control panels and regulators. The organized mess of circuitry and controls before them would be what ultimately destroyed this unholy god machine and save the Galaxy from future cataclysms.

They each removed their helmets, welcoming the cool air that filled their lungs after huffing nothing but their hot recycled breaths for the last unknown minutes while they ran through the base and shot their way to the room in which they stood.

“These old things are just as uncomfortable as ever!” Han harrumphed as he shook out his hair from his eyes and throwing the helmet over the railing. As if the plastoid armor was made of the most abrasive fabric in the Galaxy, the smuggler tore off the breastplate and arm guards with vigor revealing an old beige long sleeve shirt underneath. Rolling the sleeves up to his elbows as he made his way over to the oscillator controls with Finn and Poe. Then an old familiar voice rang in his ear unheard since the Rebellion victory at the Battle of Endor.

“Still meddling in places where you don’t belong, Solo!?” The woman’s voice called out from the center of the catwalk behind the three men.

Han turned around, squinting his eyes at the woman as he tried to recognize her. Her long copper hair that was always tied down along the right shoulder had faded to a silver gray but those green peridot eyes full of ambition and her venomous snarl was the same as it was thirty years ago.

“Commander Daala, I thought you were eaten by a bunch of bear people on Endor. Or, you know, at least out of a job.” The old Rebel snipped at the former Imperial officer standing before him.

“Spar me the sarcasm, rebel, and for the last time it’s _Admiral_!” Natasi Daala grimaced as she pulled a blaster from her belt and aimed it at her bitter old enemy.

“Geez, what is with these people and their obsession with rank in this place,” Poe grumbled quietly to Finn as they tore into the controls of the thermal oscillator. The former stormtrooper only shrugged in response.

Han stepped closer to the Admiral with his hands in his pockets. The confidence and exhaustion he wore on his face genuine as he stopped a few steps in front of the woman. The old man looked behind Daala upon hearing the sound of coming footsteps and saw Talyc, Rey, and his old friend Chewie enter the room. Standing at the edge of the catwalk in front of the doorway, they aimed their weapons at the woman who held their general at gunpoint with her blaster pistol as they listened to the words the seasoned combatants spat out at each other; layered with decades of unbridled animosity behind every word.

The three in the doorway did not understand however, why the Resistance General was leaving his guard down? Why was there only one blaster ready and aimed in this heated standoff?

Talyc could feel a sense of finality coming from his father. But the Force seemed to hold him in place. The mandalorian stood there on the catwalk, a bystander of fate.

“I find it hard to believe that the rogue smuggler Han Solo, the man whose alliance was only to himself, is still willing to fight in this war. Even after your own brother-in-law killed your son. Tell me, Solo, did you even mourn the boy?” Admiral Daala jeered in a voice filled with nothing but hate and poison.

Rey, Finn, and Poe gasped over what they heard. Rey did not know the tragedy that befell the smuggler’s son, but all three were enraged by the audacity of the First Order officer's tactics to taunt Han in such a manner. Talyc and Chewbacca continued to observe the conversation with their weapons aimed to kill.

Dread crawled its way into the mandalorian’s heart as he recalled the exchange of words he had with his father outside of the hangar in the snow.

“No,” Han shook his head, his eyes reflecting the certainty in his voice as he locked his eyes with the three fighters who stood at the edge of the catwalk. Talyc felt as if Han could see his face behind the mask he wore. “My son is alive.”

The room was blanketed in silence, the only sound heard being the inhuman hum of the oscillator itself.

And Natasi Daala laughed. A cruel cackle resonated and bounced around the walls of the place as Han stood stoic and unreadable in front of her.

“You truly are insane, Solo! You poor hopeless fool!” Her voice echoed through the red lit room as she ridiculed the smuggler further.

Red. The foreboding color of blood.

“Says the washed up commander grasping for control,” Han scoffed. “The Empire lost thirty years ago, Daala! And I’d bet money on it that the First Order will do th-”

Han Solo’s words were cut off by a blaster bolt to the abdomen. The smuggler grabbed at his stomach with a loud grunt, his face twisted in pain as his skin burned around and within the wound. He grasped onto the railing of the catwalk trying to keep his balance. The fresh injury and the high altitude of the catwalk made his head spin with vertigo.

“So you’d rather kill me to shut me up. Just so you can continue to run away from the truth!” The Rebel coughed out his head beginning to swim in a could of dizziness brought on by the pain in his midsection and blood seeping from the corner of his lip.

“Says the man who lies to himself about his dead son. Send Ben Solo my regards.” Daala derided, her lip twisted in a sick grin as she pulled the trigger of her pistol; sending another bolt of plasma into Han’s chest. The force of the blast was the last push to cast the smuggler over the edge of the railing of the catwalk, falling down into the pit of his demise.

Rey’s screams and Chewbacca’s howls were muffled and seemed far away as Talyc shouted words he could not hear himself say while he climbed over the rails. The mandalorian did not see his Wookiee uncle shoot his own blaster, striking Admiral Daala through the heart as he perched himself on the edge, becoming a creature of battle and fury ready to make his descent.

Talyc did not feel Rey’s arms that grabbed at him and wrapped around his chest, breaking away unwillingly as he pushed himself off of the edge, plunging himself into the seemingly endless fall down the pit in the cylindrical room.

All the mandalorian heard was the frantic beating of his heart. All he saw was his father falling, and all he felt was his soul being torn apart over the thought that he would soon be bringing his father’s lifeless body home to his mother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to stay true to major events of the sequel story. I adore Han Solo, but it was how the story ended up flowing as I wrote it.


	12. Prodigal Son

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talyc makes a choice between love and honor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You all are awesome for writing comments and leaving kudos! 70 kudos and over 1000 hits! I can't thank you all enough! (My husband was surprised when he asked yesterday teehee)
> 
> I've tried sharing the links for updates on tumblr, but they seem to never make it past my blog. I only use the phone app and I'm not the best with html. 
> 
> In fact, this chapter is the first time I have been brave enough to test it for italicized text.
> 
> As usual Mando'a translation notes will be at the bottom.

Growing up, Ben Solo was often told that he was just like his father; stubborn and reckless.

Even as a grown man, with a new name and identity, Talyc Solus was still just like Han Solo.

He was a damned fool! Ben Solo and Talyc Solus were one and the same, a young idiot with no foresight! At least those were the thoughts that the mandalorian chastised himself with as he descended close enough to his father and pulled his body into his arms with the Force with the motion of his hand; holding the man in his arms as a father would hold his child. The adrenaline flowing in his blood hindered Talyc’s rationality as he continued to free fall down the floor of the oscillator room below.

Then the mandalorian remembered!

_Once long ago on a jungle moon; Talyc was twenty-one years old at the time. His armor was still black plastoid and he was still traveling with his clan. Din had left the newest member of the Clan of Three in charge of the Child as he searched for the mark hidden in the lush forest around them._

_Knowing the Child could use the Force exceptionally well, Talyc took it upon himself to practice using his otherworldly gift with the small infantile creature who, ironically, was decades older than him. It started with simple tricks such as lifting rocks and moving dead tree limbs. Then Talyc had an idea. He had seen how the Child, his vod’ika_ little brother, _could move and warp objects around him, but could the small Force-using creature use the force on himself and enhance his physical abilities?_

_There was only one way to find out._

_The two Mandalorians stood in an open clearing surrounded by Tall trees and thick dangling vines. Talyc looked down at the little green foundling._

_“Vod’ika!”_

_The Child looked up at his adopted brother and slowly blinked._

_“Ja’hailir!_ Watch this! _" the taller mandalorian instructed before running to the nearest tree and, in a defiance of gravity, ran up the trunk a few steps before jumping to the next tree, laughing himself to nearby vines and branches with quick dashes of the Force to propel him up through the trees. Before he knew it, Talyc was holding onto a vine just beneath the canopy; swinging to and fro as he looked down at the forest floor below._

_But the Child was no where to se seen!_

_Panic rose from Talyc’s stomach up to his throat as he hollered down below._

_“Vod’ika!? Vod’ika, Vaii cuyir gar!?_ Little brother, where are you!? _”_

_Din Djarin was going to kill him! Or worse, strip Talyc of his armor!_

_Then he saw it. From the corner of his visor, a flipping, spinning green and brown blur dashed from tree to tree haphazardly. It was incredible, never had Talyc seen such skill achieved so easily was all he could think as the Child bounded from a branch and into his free arm; causing the two Mandalorians and the rope like vine to swing about wildly under the forest canopy._

_Talyc could not help but laugh cheerfully in relief as the Child smiled up at his brother, his long pointed ears twitching with glee._

_“Ibac Ori’jate, Vod’ika!_ That's very good! _” Talyc congratulated the Child, his voice still ringing with laughter as they continued to swing dozens of feet above the ground. “Now we just need a way to get back down.”_

_“Tenn gar gaan._ Open your hand. _” an unfamiliar voice spoke through the Force._

_Talyc looked around round him before he looked down at the small creature tucked in his arm. His large brown eyes met his through the visor. Talyc was unsure if the voice came from the small alien._

_“Haalur o’r bal tenn gar gaan. Duumir te ara jorir gar daab._ Breathe in and open your hand. Allow the Way to carry you down. _" The voice spoke again. It was as if the Force itself was speaking to the Mandalorian in a voice heard without sound. Talyc decided to take the Force’s advice and took a slow deep breath, allowing the Force to wrap it’s arms around him and as he released his breath, he released his hold on the vine._

_Instead of gravity pulling Talyc and the Child back down to the planet’s surface. The Mandalorians were slowly lowered down to the forest floor, cradled in the gentle loving arms of the Force._

There were no jungle vines to let go of, and there was no ethereal voice in the Force to give Talyc instruction; only a man holding his father and a free fall coming to a dimly lit end. The mandalorian maneuvered his body in the air so that his feet were pointing down to the steel floor that was approaching fast. He slowed his breathing and asked the Force to embrace him once more.

As he concentrated on his slow breaths and the Force’s mercy, the air around Talyc began to slow down. His descent into a safe landing became certain as he continued to breathe slow and deep, planting his feet on the duristeel bottom of the pit, the Force swirling the layer of dust around him as he knelt down to place his father gently on the cold floor.

It was then that Talyc saw the erratic rise and fall of his father’s chest as he struggled to breathe his last breaths. Speaking to the red sky of the oscillator room high above them.

“B-Ben...I’m sorry,” Han spoke to the air behind the mandalorian who held the old smuggler in his dying moments. “I’m sorry I let you go, Ben,” he stuttered as a tear fell from his eye.

“Dad, it’s alright,” Talyc grabbed his father’s hand and held it tight to his beskar plated chest, his voice breaking with his own tears as he spoke, “I’m ok, I’m right here. You can rest now.”

Han’s hand tightened weakly around Talyc’s fingers, pushing the Mandalorian to do the unthinkable. He let go of his father’s hand and reached for his buy’ce _helmet_ , removing it to reveal his face.

His hair was black as the void of space, and though held down by his helmet it was still wild and wavy. His skin was fair from never being kissed by the sun’s rays but mottled with a few beauty marks that dotted his cheeks. With a prominent nose, once broken from a fight long forgotten, that was well designed for his long face graced with full, pouting, rose hued lips that were twisted in a frown mirroring the pain shining in his deep brown eyes. 

Han Solo reached up to touch the familiar face he had only envisioned in daydreams and nightmares for the last ten years. His son blinked the tears from his eyes that cascaded down his face and into the calloused hand that stroked his cheek. The rough hands of a smuggler, the loving hands of a father.

The old rebel smiled, beaming with pride. His son was all grown up. A man of survival and strength, a pilot known for skills beyond his own. Yet he still had his mother’s beautiful eyes full of kindness and wonder. 

Han was glad to die knowing those kind eyes still shined with life, and eternally grateful to the Maker that he was able to look into them one last time. The infamous smuggler Han Solo, Second General of the Resistance, closed his eyes with a smile on his lips, sighing happily as death carried his spirit from his body.

Talyc irrationally shook his father in an attempt to wake him, but it was too late. Han Solo died in the arms of his lost son in the midst of battle, a true warrior’s death. But the agony the mandalorian felt unleashed itself in the form of a wail that lurched from his vocal chords and out into the air around him, it seemed to rattle the duristeel walls and shake the planet itself as he cried out in mourning. Talyc’s spirit bellowed a shock wave into the Force that traveled out beyond Starkiller base and into the Galaxy for all in tuned with the Force to hear. From Rey and Finn on the catwalk above him, to the Resistance base on D’Qar light-years away, and even places that were unknown to him, Talyc could feel their heads turn and eyes widen in shock upon knowing that Ben Solo called out to the Galaxy from somewhere far, far away. Demanding justice for the loss of his father by no one's hand but his own.

The son held his father close, and for the first time in ten years, Talyc did not know who he was. Was he a Mandalorian? Was he the last Skywalker? A bounty hunter? A lost prince? Was he a no one, or someone rare and special? 

The only thing Talyc was certain of was that he was a man bereaved who was being torn apart. It was a pain he hoped he would soon forget, but knew that hope would never flourish. He would remember this day until his dying breath.

The mandalorian looked down at his Beskar headpiece that lay on the floor beside him. He remembered his brothers; the Child and Din Djarin, they were still in the Galaxy somewhere. His mother was unknowingly waiting for him to bring the scavenger to D’Qar. He still had family alive and well waiting for him.

Even Rey, Talyc recalled her arms that wrapped around him before he made his descent down this pit. And a warmth spread through his chest and stomach. She was waiting for him as well.

The mandalorian took in his surroundings, the only way up to the catwalk was a flimsy steel ladder. Talyc rejected the ladder as an option, it was too slow and cumbersome an endeavor. With the ladder came the risk of having to choose between his survival and leaving his father’s body on this hell planet that was destined for destruction. A choice the mandalorian refused to even risk to make. He judged the diameter of the room and looked up at the red lights that shined in the distance above him and wondered if just maybe…

It was a feat that was nearly impossible to accomplish, but the mandalorian had to give it shot.

Talyc channeled the Force to bend it to his will as he placed his helmet back over his face, and lifted Han Solo into his arms. What he planned to do was going to take everything he had. This was going to be a true test of Talyc’s connection with the Force. 

After a few deep meditating breaths, Talyc, with his father’s body limp in his arms, ran forward to the curved wall before him. He remembered the day on the jungle moon teaching the Child to use the Force the same way he was about to use it now. Jumping up to the wall mid sprint and then Force dashing as soon as his feet were planted on the smooth curved surface. Talyc did this over and over, dashing and running to and fro up the cylindrical pit, imagining the trees and vines that helped the mandalorian project himself up higher and higher. Sweat began to drip down his covered face as his whole body burned painfully with exertion, and it grew exponentially worse with every dash up to his escape.

The catwalk was one last push from the wall away. Talyc put everything he had into his final dash, but his grip on his father began to falter and so did his concentration. The mandalorian had nothing left in him to correct his form so he held onto his father’s body with one arm with all the strength he had left and reached out for the catwalk’s railing. He was so close.

And Talyc missed.

The mandalorian would have given up and sank into despair if two hands had not reached down and caught him by the arm. Talyc looked up to see Poe and Finn, standing side by side and leaning over the railing. Poe giving him a smirk as the two men focused on holding onto their friend.

“Mando, we thought you were a goner!” Poe shouted down to his comrade who dangled above the abyss as he and Finn pulled the bounty hunter as far up the railing as they could. 

Their struggle was eased as two more arms reached over the railing. One lean arm reached for the mandalorian; while the other, long and covered in fur, grabbed Han by his shirt collar, and, with inhuman strength, pulled the smuggler’s lifeless body over the railing with ease.

Rey, Finn, and Poe pulled Talyc over the railing and into safety with one well coordinated heave. The four humans celebrated quickly with smiles and nervous laughter between panting, tired gasps for air before they looked to the door that led to the rest of the base.

“We gotta get out of here!” Finn’s voice was filled with urgency as he looked at his friends, “This planet’s doomed to implode- explode- or whatever it’s gonna do in about forty-five standard minutes!”

Talyc looked at the people who stood with him on the catwalk, all worthy warriors in their own right, but they needed a strategy to get off this planet as fast as they all could.

“You three,” the mandalorian pointed to Rey, Finn, and Poe. His voice had an air of tranquility about it as he spoke; Talyc assumed was from exhaustion, “you’ll hurry to the Millennium Falcon. Get out of here as fast as you can. Chewbacca,” The Wookiee growled in acknowledgment, “you’ll hold onto Solo, and come with me.”

The group quietly nodded in agreement before grabbing their weapons and storming the door that led to their escape.

**

“Sir! The thermal oscillator is going haywire! There’s nothing we can do to stablize it!”

“Mayday, mayday! The reactor cores are over heating with solar energy!”

“General Hux, what are we going to do!?”

The staunch redhead, wearing bandages on his nose and deep purple bruises under his eyes, stood at the bridge of Starkiller base, staring at the holo panels that reflected the map of the base, the blue haze of the hologram becoming overrun with red in various parts of Starkiller’s engineering and power sectors. This place was going to end the same way as the Death Stars of the old Empire. The shrill, panicked voices of the petty officers around him were giving him a headache.

‘The renegade bastards actually did it, Flower.’ Hux thought before answering the First Order officer beside him.

“There’s nothing we can do. If the thermal oscillator is overloading we are as good as dead if we stand around trying to stop the inevitable. Ready everyone we can to evacuate, the more of us that survive the better.”

The men and women who monitored the base from the bridge were silent upon hearing the news. Some hit the emergency switches to sound the alarms and alert the rest of the base of the dire situation they were in.

“Sir, I have visuals of unknown persons running through the hangar!”

The First Order General stepped to the lower officer who paused the image on the data pad and handed it to him, revealing the Resistance operation led by a black armored Mandalorian.

The same Mandalorian bastard that broke the General’s nose.

Teeming with rage, Hux stomped off after throwing the data pad onto the lower officer’s lap. The General pulled out a comlink.

“Ren. Ren! I need you to dispatch your gunners.” Hux demanded though the comlink.

“My friend, my comrades in the Shadow have names. I would be more willing to offer my help if you called them by such.” Ren’s voice replied in a smooth voice.

Hux huffed loudly and asked again “I need Kuruk and Cardo to take care of a Force-using Mandalorian that’s trying to escape! Will you send them out!?”

Ren laughed though his end of the link, “Your wish is my command, General. And do lighten up, you’ll kill yourself with stress.”

“JUST TAKE CARE OF THE DAMNED MANDALORIAN! THAT'S AN ORDER!” Hux shrieked into the comlink before abruptly turning it off, choosing not to bother himself with Ren's sarcastic answer, and headed to the Hangar to find a ship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vod'ika - little brother (though the child is older, he is,in fact, small/little)
> 
> Ja'hailir - observe/ watch over
> 
> Vai cuyir gar? - "where are you?"
> 
> Ibac Ori'jate - "that's very good/ that was excellent"
> 
> Tenn gar gaan - "open your hand" is the direct translation. For the situation/context it is meant to translate to "let go"
> 
> Haalur o’r bal tenn gar gaan. Duumir te ara jorir gar daab. - "Breathe in and open your hand. Allow the Way to carry you down." There is not a Mando'a word for 'the Force' that I could find. But using the word 'the way' is a clue as to who was speaking to Talyc through the Force.
> 
> Buy'ce - helmet


	13. Blood and Snow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talyc fights for his life. And the Force awakens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation notes are at the bottom. Comments, kudos, and shares are welcomed and encouraged.
> 
> I have been placed on furlough at my job so I'll continue to have time to write and update as of now until May 1st. You guys and this story has been a big help during this strange time.

The Resistance fighters made their way to the outside of Starkiller Base in a valiant blaze of Force pushes and blasts of plasma, running out into the snow covered forests and sheets of ice that was the planet’s surface. The sky was dark and sprinkling the earth with thick soft flakes of snow.

Talyc and his Wookiee uncle, who held his best friend in his arms, stormed through the trees and brush to the Mythosaur while Rey, Finn, and Poe hurried and dodged around large fallen wooden obstacles as they ran for their lives to the Millennium Falcon. All of them ignorant to the two sets of eyes that watched them run from high in the trees.

As Talyc and Chewbacca ran towards the Mythosaur in the distance, the mandalorian felt a dark presence ripple through the force like black sludge dripping in clean water. He felt the eyes observe their escape. Talyc had a vision through the Force’s scrying glass of a gloved finger pulling a trigger from high in the trees.

“Ba’vodu! Look out!” Talyc cried out to Chewbacca as a massive plasma bolt flew through the air before decimating the large rotten tree stump that the mandalorian moved in the bolt’s path of destruction with a sweep of his armored arms. He looked back at the Wookiee and hollered, “get to the ship! Now!” urging his uncle to get he and his father to the kom'rk class vessel and get ready to leave.

A short distance away two black figures fell from the trees and landed on their feet with a predator’s grace. They sauntered over to the mandalorian and his uncle like loth wolves cornering their prey, one had a large menacing rifle in their hands large enough to be considered a canon, and the other’s weapon was attached to his right limb, a destructive mechanical extension of his body. They wore masks like the warrior Talyc encountered on Jakku, and they had a weaker connection to the Force, but it was still cruel and dark as the fear mongering other.

“Target acquired. The crybaby was right, target is Force-sensitive and his power is awake,” the masked rifleman with the gun that extended down his arm confirmed though a comlink within his façade in a modulated male voice. His mask was an unknown alloy and was blank with the exception of a thin opening across his eyes.

“You handle the mandalorian,” the other masked gunner commanded, “I’ll take care of the girl. Ren wants her alive for Supreme Leader Snoke.”

Without hesitation, Talyc clenched his hands as he reached out straight ahead of him. The two riflemen were frozen still as their bodies were hoisted into the air with invisible hands before the mandalorian threw them into nearby tree trunks with a power so strong that pieces of wood scattered and splintered about the snow.

“If you want the girl, you’ll have to get through me!” Talyc snarled loudly at the two Knights of Ren as he pulled a beskar’kad and his other blaster pistol from his belt. His urge to protect the scavenger raged its way through the currents of the Force, sending a message to the knights that he would fight with his teeth bared and knives out. The mandalorian caught a glimpse of the silver of the lightsaber’s hilt on his belt, reflecting the starlight that shined down from the black sky above. He would not weird his grandfather’s lightsaber, not yet.

**

Finn, Poe, and Rey sprinted as fact as their tired legs could carry them as the Falcon’s silhouette, dark and welcoming shadow of hope, came into view. Poe pressed a button on a small remote control Chewie gave him when they split up and the gangplank dropped down as they drew closer to their escape.

Poe was the first to run up the ramp, his steps clanking into the cold night; followed by Finn. But as Rey hurried up the path to her departure she heard the thundering sound of wood shattering in the distance that froze her feet onto the ground she stood on.

The scavenger could feel something dark oozing with malice in the air. No, there was two! The reflecting pool of the Force in her mind revealed to her two black figures, their masks, warped metal imitations of human faces, were similar to the monster that tried to speak to her sweet nothings as he raided her mind with the Force. They aimed their guns, weapons of carnage stained with blood mercilessly spilled across the Galaxy, at Talyc who stood before them with his own weapons drawn.

“Rey! We gotta get outta here!”

She barely heard Finn’s cries as he called for her to enter the Falcon.

Talyc was alone. Ready to face those dark creatures head on in the cold landscape of the dying planet dusted with fresh snow. For a fraction of a second Rey saw the world through the mandalorian’s eyes and the scavenger saw herself in the man who would never call himself a hero, living in a world against all odds, ready to fight tooth and nail to survive into the next day. How similar they were.

“Rey!” Finn bellowed down the duristeel plank, reaching out to help her up to safety. But Rey’s golden amber eyes looked up at her friends as if she could not recognize their faces. Her breathing became heavy as she turned to look at the forest behind her, thinking over what she should do. Rey looked back at her friends, the two men she had just met a few days before, sending her on the greatest, most dangerous, adventure of her life. She took a good long look at Poe and Finn, trying remember every feature on her friends’ faces for it very well could be the last time she would look upon them. It was the closest she could ever come to saying ‘thank you’ for showing her that life was so much bigger than a junkyard planet.

And then Rey of Jakku turned around racing back to the forest.

Finn began to run after her but was stopped by Poe Dameron’s strong hold on him. The defector called out to his friend, but his cries fell on deaf ears as Rey disappeared into the trees.

The scavenger rushed through the forest, barreling around tree trunks and ducking below shallow branches. She felt an influence that heightened her reflexes and pushed her body to limits she never realized she had as it washed over her; wondering if this presence was that ‘Force’ everyone had been talking about on that Maker forsaken base.

But Rey did not care about the Force. She cared about aiding the man who pulled her out of the darkness the First Order and the Knights of Ren buried her in. The Mandalorian whose eyes resembled a man that had haunted her in her dreams and left her longing for companionship in her waking hours.

It seemed as if the very thought of those brown eyes, wise beyond years and saddened by the Galaxy’s secrets, caused the Force to push Rey to her physical limits beyond what the thought possible as she ran to the ongoing battle ahead.

**

The odds of the skirmish Talyc found himself in was two to one. The odds could have been worse, the combatants could have been worse. The Mandalorian would survive this, he had to, for the sake of his parents. He had to bring his father home to his mother.

Talyc stood his ground, his beskar’kad and his pistol in his hands; the Force was weak with him after using it to his limits to retrieve his father and escape Starkiller base. The mandalorian would have to make due with his sharp aim and brute strength.

The bounty hunter charged the gunners, making sure to keep his enemies close. The Knights’ rifles were designed for long distance sniping and destruction, meaning close combat would prove difficult for the riflemen to aim their guns at point blank range; trying to shoot down the raving beskar’gam wearing animal armed with a large blade and a blaster. Talyc sliced into the armor of the dark gunner wielding the cannon-like rifle across the gut, and shot the other in the leg before the former slammed the butt of his firearm into the mandalorian’s armored face.

Talyc staggered back before falling into the snow, his brain felt rattled and the twang of beskar rang through his ears in a high pitched scream. The mandalorian noticed that the lightsaber was no longer on his hip but sat nestled in the snow a few feet away. The force of the blow must have detached the Jedi blade from his belt. The relic was close enough that Talyc could see it’s silver finish glisten in the snow, unfortunately the sword was just outside of his reach.

The two gunners Force signatures cackled with delight and blood lust as they circled Talyc like buzzards hovering around their dying meal. Little did they know that there was still plenty of fight left in the bounty hunter. These Force-sensitive bastards cannot kill a Mandalorian that easily! In a last ditch effort, Talyc reached out and called the lightsaber to him with the Force.

Stars be damned! The silver hilt did not move!

The mandalorian strained his focus on the lightsaber, demanding it to fly into his hand. But his grandfather’s blade seemed to resist him, as if it was being pulled away by an opposite current. Much to Talyc’s dismay the lightsaber began to fly away from him. Flipping through the air like a shining turbine blade before it found its way home-

Into the rough calloused hand of the scavenger Rey.

The black clad riflemen turned to the girl in dingy white rags that now shimmered with an aura of blue that glowed in the night as the snow fell around her. Her honey eyes were wild and no words were uttered before she ran into the fight, igniting the plasma blade before lunging at the gunner with side shields that protruded forward from where his temples would be beneath the mask. Swinging the blue stream of light with a deadly grace as if the sword was destined for her hands.

The mandalorian had to look away. The fierce nature of this woman, the fact that she was fighting with such vigor to save his life, it reawakened the emotions he had when he saw her in the cantina and when he spoke to her in the prison cell during his strange dream. Rather than distract himself with the warmth that flooded his ears again, Talyc quickly kip-upped and once on his feet, the mandalorian swung his beskar’kad at the unoccupied gunner with the speed and determination of a rabid loth cat. Powdery snow kicking up around him with every hard step and vicious strike.

Through his visor, he could barely see Rey as she deflected her assailant’s melee blows with the blue plasma stream and backing her canon wielding opponent against a nearby tree. His glance over to the was a near fatal mistake; the dark combatant he was fighting saw the opening and rammed his rifle into Talyc’s stomach before pushing the mandalorian back into a wide tree, knocking the wind out of him, and striking him to the ground again with his weapon. The blow the gunner struck Talyc with was aided with the Force. The mandalorian tried to sit up as blood poured out from the bottom of his helmet. The buy'ce had cut his chin wide open. The red nectar of life stained the white snow as it dripped to the ground.

‘Thanks for the great story, dad’ Talyc sent the thought to his father’s spirit in the Manda as he tried to push himself up. But a heavy booted foot kicked Talyc in the ribs hard enough to roll him onto his back as he gasped for air in deep coughs. The sniper straddled the mandalorian’s chest and placed the rifle under his chin.

“Too bad,” a voice through the mask rasped mechanically due to its modulator, “you could have been worthy of the Shadow.”

Before the gunner had a chance to blow away his head, Talyc lifted his hand and clenched his fist with all his might. It was instinct, a simple reaction to the choice of living or dying. The knight began to gag and grunt from under his mask, trying to push the trigger on his rifle and finish the mandalorian. Talyc tightened his grip on the air more as the power struggle continued. He was sure if his hands were bare that his nails would have drawn blood by now his hand was balled up so tight.

_Crack!_

The Force had snapped the gunner’s neck, shattering the bones to pieces as his neck collapsed on itself with a nauseating crunch. The Knight of Ren’s body went limp and lifeless, falling beside Talyc in a dead heap on the snow.

Death is life; take it only when your opponent tries to take yours. Talyc tried to crawl over to his pistol on the ground. Once in his hands, the mandalorian aimed it at the other gunner. But he lowered his weapon as he saw Rey skewered the other Knight of Ren with the lightsaber through the heart. She extinguished the blue glowing blade and the body slid down the tree he was backed up against before collapsing in the snow. The only sound in the forest being their panting breaths, and the only subject they saw was each other.

“You’re bleeding,” Rey pointed out, looking at the waterfall of blood that painted Talyc’s shining breastplate with streaks of red.

The mandalorian looked down and saw the drops of blood that speckled the virgin white snow. ‘How poetic,’ he thought as he recalled the fact that he had just killed a man with the Force for the first time. And hopefully the last.

“Blood is something I’m quite familiar with.” Talyc answered the scavenger quietly in the dark forest.

“Is that why you chose your name?” Rey inquired, a stray lock from her top bun flowed slightly in the soft breeze like a chestnut colored ribbon.

She was a goddess of Combat in the forest, glowing in the blue starlight that shined down from the heavens.

Captivating, she was absolutely captivating.

“You speak Mando’a?” was all Talyc managed to say as he was so dumbstruck by the vision before him.

“One learns many languages when they encounter many peoples. It’s a skill that has kept food in my belly.”

Unbeknownst to Rey, Talyc saw her life flash through the Force, how she was punished with starvation regularly, and fought tirelessly for what little she had. That the creature who she was given to for reasons too fogged over to see, was as cruel as the desert’s wrath if she could not provide parts that turned a profit.

Talyc had endured the elements to the point that his flesh and bone were as hard as his armor. After his death at the hands of his uncle and his resurrection bestowed upon him by his vod’ika, the life of a Mandalorian demanded that Talyc’s body be broken again and again. However, it was never as punishment, only a consequence for risks poorly calculated. In other words; his own actions resulted in his anguish.

Pain and suffering had been Talyc’s bedfellows for ten years, yet hunger was a stranger he never knew.

Rey blinked at the mandalorian and he jaw dropped slightly, even when flabbergasted she was stunning.

“You’ve...You’ve never been hungry?” she asked as if she heard his thoughts.

The mandalorian had to recount whether or not he thought aloud to himself, but before he could reach a conclusion the world around the two began to rumble and shake violently. Rey and Talyc braced themselves as the ground beneath them started to crack apart. They looked at each other with one last longing gaze before sprinting for dear life back to their ships so they could leave this dying planet behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beskar'kad - Mandalorian iron blade. Word is crudely made up as all the words for blade in Mando'a refer more to swords and sabers. Talyc's beskar'kad is more like a Bowie knife.
> 
> Beskar'gam - Mandalorian armor
> 
> Manda - the collective spirit of Mandalorian souls. The believed Mandalorian afterlife.


	14. Conflicts of Honor and Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talyc and Rey mourn the death of Han Solo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Your comments and kudos make my day during all this pandemic stuff.
> 
> Lots of translation notes will be at the bottom.

“Yeah!”

“Woo!”

Finn and Poe celebrated from their places on the bridge of the Millennium Falcon as they watched the planet turned mega weapon burst into billions of shimmering pieces that now flew aimlessly throughout the Galaxy from light years away. Poe Jumped from his seat in the Pilot’s chair as Finn ran up to the Resistance Pilot and threw his arms around him in a tight embrace. Rey quietly sighed as she relaxed her grip on the co-pilot controls. They made it, they survived what was the most dangerous endeavor the scavenger had ever undertaken, and will live to see another dangerous day in the Galaxy.

Yet the victory felt hollow to Rey, as not everyone survived. Somewhere in the hyperlane the Falcon was flying through was another ship that contained the Corellian freighter’s captain who was gunned down unarmed during the mission.

The scavenger tilted her head back on the head rest of her chair and stared at the dilapidated ceiling, with wires hanging like vines in a mechanical jungle. It crushed the girl to know that these wires and controls would never be handled by their pilot ever again.

Han was gone, shot dead in cold blood by a begrudging Imperial Officer who could not let the Past die, but was willing to kill it by her own hand. Everything now seemed so senseless. Han was dead, all because he offered to steal away one of his underlings and a fugitive off world, only to take on a rescue attempt to safe her lowly life. The life of a youngling whom he had only met literally days before.

Truth be told, Rey of Jakku did not feel worthy of the mercy life had bestowed her. R’iia be damned for her cruelty! R’iia be damned for her strange sadistic grace!

“Rey, you alright?” Finn asked his friend with nothing but kindness in his voice.

“No,” the desert dweller curtly answered the defector. Rey understood Finn was merely concerned for her, but such compassion the scavenger was unfamiliar with.

“Han’s dead, Finn.” The words stung her heart as she uttered them aloud, speaking the truth into reality, “so I hardly see a reason to smile right now.”

It was Poe’s turn to speak up and offer his words of wisdom on his fallen General’s ship. The Resistance pilot had a hunch that he would be the one to offer more of these encouraging statements in the foreseeable future.

“Kid,” Poe began turning his chair to face the scavenger, placing his elbows on his knees as he leaned in to talk to her. “I know this is tough, believe me, Han’s not the first casualty of this awful war. And I know how you feel, things seem pointless right now, and that feeling doesn’t go away. And it always comes back when we lose another comrade or friend. But you _have_ to understand that the Han Solo I knew; the ragged old bastard that, for the last ten years, gave his everything to the cause, would kick your seat right now because he wouldn’t want you to feel the way you do.”

“And how do _you_ suppose I should feel!?” The scavenger snapped at the pilot, her light brown eyes glaring into his onyx irises; a shimmer of coming tears she held at bay within her own.

“ _You_ feel like you aren’t worth it,” Poe’s words pierced Rey’s heart, she tried to breath, but the air would not enter her lungs. She watched the pilot who sat in the Han's old chair, on the throne of the Millennium Falcon, as he laced his fingers together. Poe sighed as he thought of the words to lift the scavenger’s spirits.

“Rey, to Han, to the Second General of the Resistance, your survival and freedom meant more to him than you will ever know.”

Finn observed in a thoughtful silence as Rey struggled to blink away her tears.

“Why?” was all the girl, who could not understand how the two people who created her dropped her off in the desert, but an old stranger she barely knew would die in order for her to live and be her own person, could whisper into the spacious cockpit.

Poe sighed and his shoulders slumped, “Because Han fought in this war to honor the one person he couldn’t save. His and Leia’s only son, Ben Solo.”

**

The Mythosaur was silent as the hyperlane it sailed through. The ship was easier to pilot with Uncle Chewie in the co-pilot’s seat. Before, Talyc was burdened with the task of physically manning the pilot’s controls and use his invisible hands to control the co-pilot’s controls with the Force. It had taken a couple years of practice but it paid off and the mandalorian did not need a droid to help him fly his ship.

Talyc took advantage of the ship’s auto-pilot functions while traveling through the hyperlane to D’qar so that he and Chewbacca could prepare his father’s body for his final voyage home. The mandalorian was bombarded with many thoughts as he and his Wookiee uncle bathed his father’s corpse and dressed him in clean clothes one last time.

How ironic.

The one time Han Solo would be remotely presentable for his Princess would be the one time the smuggler could not show himself off. Talyc’s father was laid down on the base platform of the mandalorian’s carbonite freezing chamber, another odd twist of fate presented to his dead father. To be brought home in a carbonite prison by his Mandalorian son.

The carbonite freezing chamber of Talyc’s ship was empty and large, a bounty hunter needed plenty of space for the slabs of frozen people and creatures, the worst and most wanted of the Galaxy’s scum, that the mandalorian would capture and contain during his voyages through the Galaxy. Once the two bereaved felt that Han was properly laid to rest until they reached D’qar, Chewbacca growled in Shyriiwook asking permission to have a moment alone with his human brother and best friend to say his good-byes. The mandalorian gave his uncle a quiet nod of approval.

Talyc stood against the wall outside of chamber door, his arms crossed tightly over his chest to still the shaking as he heard the moaning roars of Chewie’s anguish. Salt water splashed like sprinkling rainfall on his shining beskar breastplate as he waited for his uncle. But the beastly cries had become too much for Talyc, so he decided a trip to the ‘fresher would suffice.

The mandalorian stood in the shower naked, his arms were planted on the ceramic tiles as he allowed the hot water to lick his wounds and old scars clean. The draining water swirled at Talyc’s feet with dirt and blood in a kaleidoscope of brown, black, and red. His thoughts were consumed and haunted by the sight of his father’s lifeless body.

‘When had he become so old?’ Talyc thought as he recalled how frail Han’s body was under his gloved hands.

He understood why his found people simply buried their dead or left their fallen brethren behind on the battlefield. Why sully the memory of their life with the vision of their untimely death?

Once his body was washed of the last day’s grime, Talyc turned off the water and dried himself. He was so distracted by his thoughts that he followed his solitary routine of walking through his ship unarmored and exposed. Walking out of the ‘fresher in nothing but his black cloth trousers, Talyc walked through the Mythosaur’s interior to the freezing chamber while carrying his beskar’gam, cradled in a heap in his left arm. The mandalorian’s soul nearly jumped out from his skin as he turned to the freezing chamber only to find his uncle sound asleep as he sat down next to the door.

Talyc quietly tip-toed barefoot around the large Wookiee whose legs were sprawled out about the floor. He used the balls of his feet to ensure the silence of each step before he passed his uncle and reached the carbonite room’s door and slid it open before stealing away into the massive empty room and sliding the door shut behind him.

The room was silent as the dead man who laid at the platform in the center of the chamber. Talyc felt like a young boy again as he slowly approached his father’s body; but not the child who was excited to venture in the Millennium Falcon and explore the Galaxy. No, Talyc was the tired and frightened Ben, who crept around his childhood home throughout the dark night because he was too afraid to sleep. The young Ben who was terrified of the nightmares and voices that plagued him constantly for what seemed like his entire life.

Talyc knelt down before the body of Han Solo, placing his beskar’gam beside him, all done in a somber quiet. His damp hair cradled his pale face as his eyes released the tears that had sparsely fell during his voyage in rivers that ran to his chin before dripping down onto his hands that rested on his thighs. Hands clenched lightly in fists that pulled onto the black cloth of his trousers.

The mandalorian thought he had cried enough, but to his surprise and frustration, the maelstrom would not cease.

“Father,” Talyc whispered into the lonely room as he spoke to Han, “I’m being torn apart.”

Until a few days ago, life was simple. Ben Solo was dead and his past was meant to be forgotten. Talyc was supposed to live out his days in obscurity, free of the burdens of namesakes and destinies he was long ago trapped in. But now his life was uncertain, now he was helping the Resistance and had returned to the arms of his parents under the most unwelcome of circumstances. And just as the mandalorian had reacquainted himself with his father, he had lost him again, and this time there was no hope for reunion.

This pain in Talyc’s chest must have been how the last years of Han Solo’s life felt. No, it was selfish of the son to compare his father’s loss to his own.

And his poor mother, what was Leia going to do? How was she going to cope with all of this?

“I thought I was free of this pain,” Talyc spoke in cracking whispers as he buried his face in his hands to contain the sobs that broke through his throat. Leaving him in the form of a chill that vibrated his shoulders. “I thought I had finally moved on from this!”

The mandalorian thought of his mother again and the Force revealed to him a vision, he saw her waiting at the Resistance base with the patience and stoicism as she watched over a cliff-side like the queen she was destined to be. He wondered if the Force had given her a similar vision and if she knew already the fate of the love of her life. Talyc collected his father’s hands in his own. Death’s hands were dry and cold.

“I know what I have to do,” Talyc told his father as he leaned in and pressed his forehead onto cold knuckles, “but I don’t know if I have the strength to do it.”

The stillness in the air gives Talyc his answer and he sighs into the ambiance if the chamber.

“Ibic te Ara.”

The mandalorian whispered those words, the mantra that held his life together and contained a meaning that brought riches to his impoverished heart.

“Death is Life.”

Han Solo died as he lived.

“Victory is Life.”

Talyc lived to survive another day.

“Family is Life.”

His father died knowing that Ben was not only alive, but followed his own path.

“Honor is...” Talyc began to say before the last words died on his tongue.

Honor. Talyc felt that he was no longer worthy of the word. He removed his buy’ce and revealed his face to someone. Not just anyone, but his father, his past. The mandalorian had pulled the threads of time and twisted them into a messy knot that began to mesh Ben and Talyc into a single being. Beginning the war of two souls fighting for dominance within. Maker what had he done!? The mandalorian’s heart sank down into his stomach, his breath became shallow and ragged, and a cold sweat began to bead on his skin as he tried to reason with himself whether or not he was now dar’manda.

Han Solo saw Ben’s face; Talyc, the mandalorian theorized, was just a suit of armor to the old smuggler. 

Here he was, Black Beskar Talyc Solus, trying to excuse his way out of damnation like his father before him.

No!

Han Solo was Ben’s father. Talyc’s father was the cruel desert and his mother was the cold Mandalorian night.

‘Idiot!’ Talyc scolded himself internally, ‘you sentimental idiot! You can’t even lie to yourself!’

No!

After hearing his parents’ story; knowing all they did was try their best to redeem the error of their ways in regards to him, and honor his memory. And understanding their tireless efforts to end the reign of Darkness that simply refused to die for the last thirty years since the Galactic Civil War ended was all for him.

Talyc was shaken by the knowledge he had been unaware of until days ago. He sat before his father’s body recalling how one of the last things Han Solo proclaimed before his demise was that he believed his son Ben was alive. And the fact that the old Rebel confided in him the true secret behind the scar on his chin, passing it on like a family heirloom to the mandalorian before they marched into the hangar of Starkiller base.

Beskar’gam or not, Han Solo knew Talyc Solus was his long lost son; and instead of outing the boy and dragging him home to D’qar by one of his large ears, Han fought along side and, soon after, died in the arms of his son. Perhaps Talyc was dar’manda before he revealed his face to his father. Or what if, in some bizarre way, the mandalorian had been a damned soul until the moment he removed his helmet and showed his face to Han?

Talyc was brought out of his thoughts when a presence, ancient and unfamiliar, emerged from the Force and embraced him.

“Motir muninar, ad,” the ancient presence cried out with a gruff and powerful voice in the language of Talyc’s found people, “gar cuyir Mando! Ti ra ures gar beskar’gam!”

Unsure as to why or how a Jedi ghost was trying to enlighten him in Mando’a, Talyc defiantly answered the presence.

“Bal tion’ad cuyir gar at sirbur bid, Jetiise!?” the mandalorian looked up at the ceiling and implored the voice that spoke to him as it hid it’s face away in the Force.

“Dikut adiik!” The hidden ghost shouted back through the force so loud it rattled the walls, “Ni cuy’ kaysh tion’da gotal te Dha’kad! Ni cuy’ te sol’yc Mand’alor! Jii motir muninar par Ni ke’gyce gar at!”

Before Talyc could lower his eyes like a jilted child, or respond to the voice that chastised him through the Force, the presence had left him, and the mandalorian was once again alone. No doubt to allow the bereaved to take in the words spoken through the Force.

The nerve of the Jedi, to lecture a mourning Mandalorian in his people’s language. Talyc was perplexed. Was the presence a Jedi? Was there ever in the history of the Jedi Order a member who was a Mandalorian? What was the Mand’alor? And what in the fiery hells of Mustafar was a Darksaber!? 

During Talyc’s training with Luke at the Jedi Temple, there was only mention of the Jedi War against the Mandalorians led by Revan in any of the Jedi codex. The war was what began the bitter rivalry and grudge between the Jedi and Mandalorians that continued to last for over three thousand years. To this day the scars of the Mandalorian Wars with the Jedi still ached with no chance of fully healing.

It was the only reason why some Mandalorians treated the Clan Din Djarin with unease. The Clan of Three, with two members able to harness the power of the Force, was an unorthodox tribe that was quietly shunned by other tribes who held onto their traditions tighter than most.

Needless to say, there were many pieces of Mandalorian history Talyc did not know, but he was determined to do his research and find out when he had the chance. He desired to know what the Mand’alor and the Dha’kad were, and how they were tied to the Force.

A sudden sound of creeping footsteps brought Talyc out of his own head and back into the present. They were not the heavy padded footsteps of a barefoot Wookiee, whoever had snuck into the carbonite freezer was clearly wearing shoes.

With the Force, Talyc called a small beskar dagger from his armor to his hand before turning around to throw the blade at the source of the footsteps that prowled behind him.

Was it a stowaway Jawa from Jakku? Or was it a rogue stormtrooper from Starkiller?

The figure whom he aimed the dagger at dodged the flying blade by dropping their body down to the floor, catching themselves gracefully with one hand and pulling a blaster from her belt aiming the weapon at Talyc with the other. He instantly recognized as his own pistol, the one he gave to the scavenger during the retrieval mission.

There was no way!

He saw the girl run to the Falcon!

This was impossible!

Impossible as it may have been, crouched down on the floor of the large and open carbonite chamber with a pistol in hand, with a beskar dagger buried deep in the duristeel panel wall where her head should have been, was non other than Rey of Jakku.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ibic te Ara - "This is the Way" the article 'cuyir'/is can be dropped sometimes in informal speech if what I have read is correct.
> 
> Motir muninar, ad, gar cuyir Mando! Ti ra ures gar beskar’gam! - "Stand up, son, you are Mandalorian! With or without your armor!" 
> 
> Bal tion’ad cuyir gar at sirbur bid, Jetiise!? - "And who are you to say so Jedi!?"
> 
> Dikut adiik! Ni cuy’ kaysh tion’da gotal te Dha’kad! Ni cuy’ te sol’yc Mand’alor! Jii motir muninar par Ni ke’gyce gar at! - "Idiot child! I am he who made the dark saber! I am the first Mandalore! Now stand tall for I order you to!" adiik is a word for a small child or a toddler. 
> 
> Mand'alor - a leader of leaders. The ruler of all tribes.
> 
> Dha'kad - the darksaber. A Jedi relic. A lightsaber with a unique style of hilt, the blade when ignited is black with a white halo. 
> 
> Buy'ce - helmet 
> 
> Beskar'gam - armor
> 
> Dar'manda - damned soul. No longer mandalorian.


	15. Ben

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talyc reveals a secret to the scavenger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my stars 1500+ hits and 80+ kudos! You are all awesome! 
> 
> Until I'm caught up with what I written I'll be posting Mondays and Thursdays. 
> 
> Enjoy and share.

“Who are you!?” Rey demanded, aiming her blaster at the man who visited her dreams and visions for as long as she could remember, “How did you get on this ship?!”

“I should ask _you_ the same thing,” Talyc answered the scavenger, his dark eyes still flared with bloodlust and the urge to protect his home and his guests. He was lying regretfully. He knew who Rey of Jakku was. But in order to keep his armored identity a secret from her he would do what he could, even if it pained him.

Rey sighed as she had no answer for the strange question. Why in blazes did he think she was on _his_ ship? He was clearly sitting alone in the cargo bay of the Millennium Falcon! The scavenger was at a loss, she had given up on why this man was always watching her from so far away whether it be in desert sands or prison cells; the realm of dreams or the world material.

“Why are you haunting me?” Rey whispered in the carbon freezing chamber of the Mythosaur, sounding meeker than she was comfortable with.

Talyc could feel the scavenger’s heart twist and ache through the Force as if his own was about to break. He echoed her sigh and tried to coax the defensive nature within her to calm down just as she had managed to do with him by asking her question. Hearing how she felt about their connection hurt more than he had imagined. Maybe it was his understanding of the Force through his Jedi training, or maybe it was because in those moments when the Force bound them together Talyc felt like the missing pieces of him were finally found.

“Put the gun down...and I just might tell you.”

Rey was afraid but complied with his request, the mandalorian could see how her hands trembled as she lowered her weapon. And how her Force signature pulsated in sync with the rapid rhythm of her heart. The scavenger let out the breath she was holding and crawled forward and sat down in front of Talyc in the large open chamber. It was clear that the last few days had been draining for the scavenger who was now so far away from the only home she ever knew.

“It’s one thing to see mirages in the desert, or encounter visions during moments of madness while on that horrid place we just left.” the scavenger began wrapping her arms around a bent knee. Her amber eyes were tired as she looked into his obsidian orbs. “But right here in the cargo bay?”

“We’re not in a cargo bay, we’re in my… chamber.” Talyc corrected Rey as he repositioned himself, sitting cross-legged and facing the scavenger. He feared if he told her exactly where he was she would piece together that they were indeed closer than previously theorized. Carbonite freezing units were rarely installed on ships and typically only one type of people had them. And the mandalorian believed Rey to be many amazing things, and intelligent was definitely one of them.

“That’s impossible! How can you be somewhere else? How can _I_ be somewhere else? Can you not see where I am?” Rey questioned the ghost of her dreams that somehow held her sanity together while she was on Starkiller.

“No,” Talyc replied as he looked deeply into her eyes. The finest stones of amber were merely pieces of colored glass compared to her shimmering irises. Talyc realized than whenever he saw her, whether out there in the Galaxy full of turmoil or in these unusual moments of peace, she truly was the only one he could see. “Just you.”

Rey’s heart skipped a beat and her breath hitched in her chest. It may have been because she had never been so close to a man before recently, with their tussle in the prison cell and when she reached out to him on Jakku at the AT-AT that was hardly a home. Other than the skirmish with Talyc at the cantina and waking up to him so close to her in the interrogation room on Starkiller, the man before her had been the only one she willingly allowed to come close to her. This stranger, with his pouting lips and black hair, his strong physique, and the scar on his chest that resembled a falling comet, took her breath away somehow each time they interacted. Dare she say it, he was beautiful and the words he said made her cheeks grow warm as she felt her tanned freckled skin turn a light shade of pink.

“You’re all I see as well,” the scavenger choked out trying to hide the growing attraction she felt for the ghost in the cargo bay. “But how are you ‘somewhere else’?”

Talyc leaned an elbow on his thigh and placed his chin on his balled fist; his other hand laid flat on his knee as he thought over what the woman before him had asked. The mandalorian mulled over everything he learned at the Jedi Temple in his head. And he recalled Luke telling him about Jedi Masters of the past developing an ability to connect with some of their closer padawans through telepathy.

But Rey of Jakku was not his student, and Talyc was hardly a master let alone a Jedi Knight.

“Scavenger,” Talyc addressed Rey feigning ignorance of who she was, “what is your name?”

“Rey.” she answered quietly in the empty room.

“Rey,” Talyc spoke in a quiet voice as he repeated her name, the way it sang from his lips made the scavenger’s heart quake, “What do you know about the Force?”

“The Force?” Rey could only answer the strange apparition before her in the cargo bay with another question. Until she had met the Mandalorian and the Resistance she had never heard of the entity that they and the First Order seemed to care so much about. Truth be told the moment she reached out to the silver rod that somehow called to her in the snowy forest on Starkiller; only for it to fly through the air and into her hand, terrified her to no end. Why though? Thinking back on things, Rey had used the Force, as everyone called it, to trick the stormtrooper on Jakku at the cantina.

“Until I met Talyc and the Resistance, I had no idea what it was. I had never even heard of it,” the scavenger explained further.

The plane where two souls converged, blending two different places across distances unknown, was silent as the man with hair dark as the black itself sat in deep thought while the woman, the rugged lady of the desert, patiently waited for what he would say.

“It’s the reason you were taken to Starkiller,” Talyc told Rey, “You have a gift, and quite a rare one. For two strangers to appear across the Galaxy like this is unheard of.”

The Mandalorian leaned forward and laced his fingers together. He knew personally how the Force can consume one to the point of madness if they did not find the right training. The Jedi method did not work for him and Talyc was lucky to find a kindred spirit in the Child who was able to provide peace and neutrality within him so that he was able to eventually grow into who he was now as a man. The mandalorian had never felt so connected to the Force when he was at the Jedi Temple as he did now.

“You need a teacher, Rey. You have to find someone who can show you the ways of the Force,” Talyc beseeched the scavenger.

Rey could not believe what she was hearing. That she, a nobody, had within her a power that the man before claimed was special and rare. So much so that she was whisked away into the stars because of it. That Han Solo died to protect it.

“I know how you feel, Rey.” Talyc assured the scavenger that sat in the freezing chamber with him.

“So says everyone else!” Rey spat out with a sharp tongue without thinking about who she was talking to. The scavenger was tired of being told she was understood. No one actually knew her, and she had made more friends in the last days than she had her whole life.

Talyc squinted his eyes and raised an eyebrow over Rey’s snide comment, “Everyone else has told you the Force is a dangerous thing if left untamed? That it can be more like a curse than a gift?”

The scavenger froze, how did this man who haunted her dreams understand how she felt? Talyc merely tapped a finger to his temple, indicating that he just _knew_. It seemed to Rey that life was becoming more bizarre by the minute.

“Are you inside my head?” She demanded an answer to her question.

“No more than you are in mine.”

Talyc closed his eyes and projected his heart into the Force; the loss, the loneliness, the anger he had felt in the last hours. He opened his eyes to Rey wiping her own with the back of her hand. So far as he knew, this woman was the only person to shed tears over his plight. The mandalorian knew that his parents had mourned him, but for another person to share his heartache and grieve with him was new and unusual, both daunting and alleviating all at once.

“You lost someone today,” Rey whispered into the carbonite chamber, another tear rolled down her cheek as she spoke. Unaware that the she was steps away from her fallen friend that the man she speaking to was mourning and watching over.

Talyc nodded in silence.

“Who was he to you?” Rey asked in a shaking voice.

“My father.”

Rey’s breath was stuck in her lungs again. She looked down at her hands that were covered in scrapes, scars and callouses from years of salvaging spare parts out of gigantic decommissioned star ships and land vehicles. Hands that drove a blade of light into the heart of her enemy. Hands that she felt were responsible for Han Solo.

The scavenger looked at her hands, covered in blood unseen.

“I lost someone today too,” Rey muttered to the man she was growing closer to by the second, who understood the things she was going through better than anyone else. “I only met him recently, but I felt like a part of me had known him all my life. And to know he’s not coming back, to know that I’m the reason he was on that horrid base where he died, I can’t help but feel like this all my fault!” She sighed and slumped her shoulders in defeat, “I just don’t know what to do.”

Talyc felt her pain through the Force as if it were his own. Between his own emotions and those of the scavenger’s the mandalorian felt as if he was becoming undone all over again. He lowered his eyes to the cold duristeel floor as he tried to take a deep breath to re-center himself.

“But you,” Rey added causing Talyc to look up, his eyes meeting hers as she continued, “if you hadn’t come to me. If you weren’t there to tell me to wait and believe that help was coming.” She smiled brightly as she fought the coming tears.

Stars that smile, Talyc would lay planets to waste for that smile to never fade from her lips.

“I just want to thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for all that you’ve done.”

Dear Maker, this woman was going to ruin him.

Talyc tightened his jaw as he thought of what to say, but his mind remained blank. As if the scavenger read the mandalorian’s indecision through the Force, she held her hand out to him. He could hear her voice through the Force call to him in a language beyond words. Entranced by the invitation, Talyc reached out to her, and the tides of the Force ebbed and flowed in great waves around them; through interstellar space, barreling through the void, time both shattered and stood still. Light and Shadow became one all seeing essence. A supreme entity beyond the edges of the known material universe.

Their hands touched, fingers lacing into each other as the Force was no longer merely with them, but that Rey and Talyc were the Force herself.

It was like coming home after a long, tiring journey.

“Who are you?” Rey whispered as the Force sang his symphony around them so loud her chestnut hair began to lift from her shoulders as her locks flowed slowly in the winds of power that cocooned them.

Overwhelmed by the touch of another hand held inside his own, and the intense pressure of the Force that surrounded him. Talyc realized too late the grave error in his answer.

“My name is Ben.”

“Ben,” Rey let the name fall from her lips with a smile and a shudder rolled down Talyc’s spine.

Stars what had he done?! What kind of a horrible and wondrous mistake did he make!?

The unarmored mandalorian gazed upon the scavenger, a goddess of the Force come to life. Her connection with the Force mirrored his own so much that the two signatures felt as if they were one and the same. In all his studies at the Jedi Temple, Talyc had never read a single word that came close to describing the phenomenon that was this mutual experience.

What was the Force doing them?

Talyc began to pull his hand away, gently unlacing his fingers from Rey’s and grazing his hand along her open palm. He savored the feel of her skin under his fingertips in case he never had the chance to do so again. Once their hands separated and one became to two again; the Force returned to its hiding place immaterial.

Silence cradled them with comfort as they stared into each others eyes, trying to make sense of what was happening between them. Talyc could feel Rey’s heart flutter within her ribs as if it were beating inside his own chest; like a hummingbird in a field of fresh blossoms. And the Scavenger felt the Mandalorian’s desire boil in her own blood.

“Rey?”

The scavenger turned around to see Finn standing in the cargo bay behind her, his shoulder leaning against the open doorway.

“Is everything alright,” the defector asked, he knew that last few hours for the scavenger were disheartening. He was also emotionally and physically drained and wanted nothing more than to eat and drop his head on anything soft enough to sleep on.

Rey turned back to face Ben, only to see an empty cargo bay that reflected the yearning in her heart. And she hoped more than anything in her soul that she would see him again and have more moments together like they shared today.

“Yeah,” the scavenger sighed without turning back to look at her friend, “I’m fine.” For the first time in as long as she could remember, she believed the words she spoke in regards to her feelings. How many times had she told Unkar Plutt and other scavengers whom she had truces with that she was ‘fine’ while she was dying a little more of loneliness every passing day? Rey knew the number, she scratched it in thousands of tally marks on duristeel walls. “I’m just really tired, that’s all.”

“Well, why don’t we get some ration packets from the galley and call it a day.” The former stormtrooper walked to his comrade and held out his hand for her. “D’Qar is still a few hours away. So we’ll have time to get some rest.”

Rey reached up and placed her hand in Finn’s and helped herself up from the floor where she sat. Her hand, though clasped warmly in her friend’s, felt surprisingly empty as Finn led her out of the bay.

One moment Rey was sitting before him, and as she turned around to the source of a sound unheard she faded into nothing and Talyc was again alone with his father in the carbonite chamber. Suddenly feeling as if a piece of him was missing all over again. The mandalorian sighed loudly into the chamber as he looked at his hand that had crossed planes beyond comprehension to touch Rey’s, the same hand that bore the long scar across his palm that bound him to the Clan Din Djarin and wondered on the riddle the Force had given him to solve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When describing the Force in this scene I wanted it to have feminine and masculine pronouns as he/she is an entity that is both and neither.


	16. Homecoming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talyc and Chewbacca bring Han home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks everyone so much for reading! I'm glad you all like the story so far.
> 
> Next update will be Monday. And translation notes are at the bottom.

It was early morning on D’Qar. The rising sun bursting from the horizon cast a glowing warm aura of color upon the Resistance base. The branches of an unknown number of trees shook the green leaves gently in the chilly morning breeze that whistled softly through the surrounding woods. The weather was cool and dry, perfect weather for a lonely morning stroll for a gold plated protocol droid who stiffly marched about the base. It was still early enough that the only members of the resistance who were out and about were mechanics and those who managed the lookout from the navigation towers nearby; watching the skies for friends returning to their makeshift home or the opposition coming to ambush.

The droid C-3PO was rebuilt almost seventy years ago, sixty-six years to be exact, and not a single one of those years of function were occupied with a period of lingering peace.

Dry temperate walks during the empty morning hours would have to suffice in the meantime.

No matter what, the protocol droid would manage, he always did. He did fight and survive the Clone Wars after all.

What C-3PO could _not_ manage was nearly being blown asunder as a Kom’rk-class ship descended onto the empty landing he was currently perusing through! The droid hobbled as far from the approaching ship that raised it’s wings from it’s flying horizontal position, rotating ninety degrees into it’s vertical landing stance as it lowered into the smooth hard surface of the landing bay’s asphalt. It had been decades since the shining mechanical being had seen a ship of it’s class, and never before had he seen it handled so delicately. Upon seeing the vessel land C-3PO was reminded of Master Anakin and a simpler time long ago.

Nostalgia was a strange creature; to remenisce over a person who committed such terrible atrocities to his family and the Galaxy with nothing but fondness was perplexing if nothing else. The protocol droid’s programming could never deceipher it, he merely accepted it and moved on.

The hum of the Kom’rk-class ship’s engines died off and a few moments later the hydrolic hatch began to drop down to the landing bay at a Hutt’s pace. From the dark belly of the vessel’s innards, a Mandalorian armored in black with the exception of an unpainted breastplate stepped down the ramp, his footsteps tapping on the duristeel panels with a ringing clanks all the way to the planet’s surface. Ever the polite host, C-3PO hobbled over with stiff-legged steps and saluted the Mandalorian with the robotic mimicry of a wave.

“Olaroma and greetings! I am C-3PO – Human/Cyborg Relations; and welcome to D’Qar,” the shining gold droid greeted the Mandalorian as warmly as a mechanical being could bring itself to be. “Is there any means of which I can assist you this fine morning?”

“I request to see General Organa immediately,” the armored visitor spoke in a tone that was firm and demanding, yet somehow still polite.

“As you wish, if you could so kindly as to follow me-”

“No. The General must come to the ship. It’s urgent.”

“I beg your pardon, Master Mandalorian, but-”

Before C-3PO could protest the Mandalorian’s request further, a loud roar of Shyriiwook curse words from inside the ship rumbled through the air.

“Oh, dear! My apologies, Master Chewbacca!” The protocol droid politely replied at the loudest volume he could answer before jerking his head back to the armored fellow that stood in front of him. “Master Mandalorian, I shall bring the General to you post-haste.” C-3PO stammered before turning around and walking away with quick short steps.

**

After a quick look around the Resistance base and asking early bird passerbys over the location of Mistress Leia’s whereabouts, C-3PO finally found his old friend and confidante. She was standing alone at the edge of a cliff side just outside of the base, looking out at the misty mountain range and distant jungles of the landscape. The General’s hair was delicately braided like the past queens of Alderaan, a juxposition of to the informal attire she wore. Leia Organa resembled an explorer more than a princess of interplanetary royalty.

“Mistress Leia,” Threepio stated, standing behind the General a few feet away, “A visitor has arrived with Master Chewbacca and is requesting your presence at his ship.”

“I see. They must have brought Han home.” Leis spoke softly as if thinking aloud to herself.

“Master Han? But, Mistress, the Millennium Falcon has not yet returned from the mission.” 

General Organa turned to face her father’s droid, her only inherited heirloom other than her gift of the Force. Her eyes were sparkling and her cheeks streaked with tears. 

“Dear Maker! Mistress, why pray tell are you crying?” C-3PO echoed the voice of one who bore heavy concern as he walked to the daughter of his maker, offering an elbow for his mistress to hold on to.

Leia linked her arm in the droid’s and looked at her mechanical comrade, “Take me to him, Threepio. Take me to Han.”

The protocol driod was rendered speechless for a moment, he was only as dense as his programming. Some would argue that C-3PO’s skills of communication lacked many necessary cues for emulating compassion. But when anyone, whether it be droid or organic being, is so close to any one person or people; those bonds sometimes breech the errors of programs and command prompts. Connections so deeply intertwined that the nuances of human communication and emotions are better noticed and understood.

“Of course, Mistress. Might I also suggest a calming cup of cassius tea? Some have said it is quite good for your health.”

“Thank you old friend,” Leis tapped the droid’s metal hand tenderly as she whispered her gratitude. The simple act of conversation seemed daunting in her current emotional state, “but right now, you need to take me to the Mandalorian.”

C-3PO jerked his head about in confusion. “Misstress Leia, I do not recall in my recent memory mentioning the race of our guest.”

“Don’t be so surprised, Threepio, I am my father’s child after all.”

General Organa drifted through the Resistance base with her arm linked with the old droid’s; the slowly growing number of Resistance officers and fighters stopped what they were doing as they observed their leader as she passed them by. Though her demeanor was like that of royalty, Leia seemed to have an air of surrender about her. The princess was relieved and thanked the Force that no one was close enough to see the tears than glistened her eyes and rolled down her face as she walked to the landing.

The death march to her fallen husband seemed to stretch for miles unending before General Organa reached the unfamiliar ship at the landing outside of the Resistance base. Leia noticed that the Mandalorian who returned was not alone, but accompanied by none other than Chewbacca. And the cracks within her porcelin heart fractured deeper. The old woman tightened her grip on Threepio to ensure her body remained balanced as she approached her messenger.

“General Organa,” Talyc greeted his mother in a low timbre that reflected his own grief.

“Mister Solus,” Leia mirrored the Mandalorian’s salutation before asking, “where are the others?”

Talyc could perceive Leia’s pain as it flooded the Force like waves crashing onto a rocky shore. Ever the diplomat, she kept her body language ambiguous and magestic; a true woman of grace.

“The Millennium Falcon should be here within the next standard hour.”

General Organa nodded as she looked down at the asphalt she stood upon, thinking about how Han would never plant his feet on the same earth ever again.

“May I see my husband?” Leia implored the Mandalorian with a quiet dignity as she turned her eyes up to him, ever thankful to the man who brought her love home.

Talyc glanced over at the Wookiee who remained silent during their exchange. His uncle gave him a slow nod.

“Of course, General. Come with me.” The lost prince held out his hand to his mother. The last princess of Alderaan let go of her droid companion and took the armored hand that reached out to her. Every movement the two royals made as Talyc helped Leia up the ramp and into the Mythosaur was a sombre dance that provoked a simper from Chewbacca as he rubbed a furry paw across his eyes.

The mandalorian lead General Organa through the Moythosaur’s insides, the woman looked around and observed all the peculiar designs and cubist patterns that decorated the Mandalorian vessel’s walls. Leia had been informed from old holos and texts of Mandalorian art styles and arcitecture being rigid and abstract but nothing had prepared her for the vision that was the inside of the Kom’rk-class fighter. The tribal patterns that graced the duristeel walls with geometric shapes and sharp angled lines were an intriguing assembly of the primitive nature and the technological advancement of the Mandalorian people.

“This vessel is not a current model of Mandalorian star ships.” Leia remarked kindly as she admired the artwork throughout the ship while walking elbows linked with its pilot. “Yet somehow you managed to not let it rot from the inside out like the Millennium Falcon.”

Talyc glanced around his traveling home and explained to the Resistance general some of the ship’s recent history.

“The members of the Death Watch that gave me this fighter said that the ship was grounded for nearly fifty years, it’s fascinating what can be preserved behind a closed hatch. The real work was repairing the sand logged engines and basic machinery. But with enough time and credits I managed to restore the beast into fair condition.”

“Fair is an understatement.” Leia scoffed at the Mandalrian’s modesty. “But you said you obtained this vessel from the Death Watch?”

“Yes. Contrary to their common reputation and history, they are a compassionate clan. The Clan of Three would not exist if it were not for the kindness of the Death Watch. They took Din Djarin in as a foundling, never requesting payment for the life-debt that was owed to them. Djarin willingly joined the Fighting Corp. and donned the armor.”

“And, you are aware of their involvement with the Sith during the time that this ship was built?”

“I am, but only vaguely. I am aware of Darth Maul’s manipulation during the Mandalorian conflicts and that he murdered Duchess Satine Kryze. Maul was not Mando, so his place in our history was only mentioned as such. Besides, in the end, the Death Watch found their loyalty with the Mandalore Resistance after the death of Pre Vizsla.”

“You surely know your Galactic history, Ad’ika,” Leia complimented her host, causing Talyc to stop. “My apologies, I meant no disrespect.” 

“No, it’s just that,” The mandalorian had trouble with his words. Never in his life did he expect his mother of all people to address him with such an endearing term in the father tongue, “you’re the only person to call me that. It’s been a long time since anyone has called me ‘son’ so affectionately.”

The General smiled and nodded, understanding from a different perspective his awe over such a small part of their conversation.

“Do you remember them?” Leia asked Talyc about his parents as they ventured closer to where Han had been laid to rest temperarily.

“I do,” he replied softly, “My father was a man who sailed his own course on the black seas of the Galaxy. And my mother thought of everyone’s well-being before her own. They differing ideals caused them to butt heads, but the riduurok they shared was transcendent.”

“If you had the chance to see them again, would you?”

Talyc thought over Leia’s question. Here he was, talking to the very woman she was asking the mandalorian about. The stress of the last hours had finally began to crash down on his shoulders. Talyc calmed himself with a few deep breaths and he told her the truth as best as he could without confessing who he was.

“Before he died, I had the chance to be in the presence of my father. I was on a job and he happened to be on the same planet. The time was short-lived, but I will cherish those fleeting moments for the rest of my days.” 

“As you should, if your father was deserving.” Leia thought of her own father and how the Force and Darth Sidious stole not only the time they should have had together, but the love she and Anakin Skywalker should have shared as parent and child. “I know from experience how fathers can be undeserving of their children’s grace.”

How remarkably cursed the Skywalker bloodline was.

“My father was deserving, more than even _he_ realized.” Talyc and Leia stopped before a large door. Behind it lay the body of Han Solo. “This is it. He’s in this room.” The mandalorian informed the Resistance General.

The last Princess of Alderaan took a deep quivering breath before turning to Talyc and acknowledging that she was ready for what was in the next room. The mandalorian placed his palm on the sensor and the door slid open.

The destruction of her home planet of Alderaan paled in comparison to the grief she felt upon seeing scoundrel. Han Solo laid upon a platform in Talyc’s emormous freezing chamber, tastefully encased in a thin layer of carbonite so that every feature of his form was visible and preserved. Roguishly handsome, even in death. Leia sauntered over to her late husband and bent down to caress the smuggler’s cheek; now cold from the layer of carbonite that preserved him during his final voyage home to his wife and the Resistance.

Leia smiled and chortled to herself before covering her mouth to hid the sob that tried to come out after. 

“Forgive this old woman for her odd behavior. It’s just that years ago, when Boba Fett captured Han, I was present when he was encased in carbonite. We shared our first kiss, and it was then that I told him that I was in love with him.” Leia smiled as she told Talyc about the memory. Her nostalgia was bright like a candle in a dark room. “And do you know what that nerf herder said in front of friends, enemies, and _my father_?”

Talyc had never seen this side of his mother before. The woman he knew had a presence, a sense of duty greater than herself. But the woman who stood beside him was so informal and tender that it made sense how and why his father fell in love with her. The mandalorian was truly honored to witness such a hidden and vulnerable side to her. Unsure of the story he was being told, Talyc shook his head and waited for his mother to finish the tale.

“He told me ‘I know’.”

The General took the mandalorian’s hand in her own and looked up at his visor as she continued, “A word of advice, Bloody One. If you ever meet someone, and they confess their feelings for you, for stars’ sake don’t say something so stupid! Because, let me tell you, I was was an angry woman during the war and that made had me furious for weeks!”

Talyc tried to stifle his laughter until his mother joined in. 

“Truth be told when I wrung that slimy Hutt bastard’s neck I was imagining Han!” She giggled. 

The two souls laughed softly in the empty room. A true moment of aay’han to honor Han’s life lived. The moment felt both blessed and cursed as it faded away too soon as Leia’s slowly slipped from the mandalorian’s as she returned her gaze to her fallen love.

“The only person I ever loved more was my son,” General Organa whispered as she broke down, as the tears fell, the old royal managed somehow to speak in a voice unbroken. “The love a mother has for a child is beyond even my understanding. And my greatest regret will always be that I never saw how much he needed me, and that I was so consumed by politics I wasn’t there for him.”

“My people believe that when we leave this world, we all return to one collective of souls.” Talyc consoled his mother, thinking about how his father’s last moments. And how he died smiling, “I’m certain that your son and and your husband have found each other in the Manda, and are celebrating their reunion.”

Leia looked up at the Mandalorian, her brown eyes both serene and somber as she tried to read him. Talyc contained the sigh that threatened to leave his throat.

“It may be because the only Mandalorian I have ever encountered was Boba Fett. But I need to ask, are all your people as compassionate and kind as you?” 

Talyc stared at General Organa. He recalled every Mandalorian he had ever met during his travels, both with his clan and alone. From Din Djarin himself to the wandering nomad tribes that made their homes on various planets throughout the Outer Rim and the rest of the Galaxy, even the Death Watch elders that were more than happy to give him the ship he now flew. Every single one of them showed Talyc nothing but hospitality and kindness. Both to each other and those who did not live the Way of the Mandalorian.

Before he could give Leia his answer, the mother and son turned to the open doorway where they heard the sound of metal footsteps click-clacking. Not long after C-3PO waddled mechanically into the room.

“Mistress Leia, Master Mandalorian,” the protocol droid gave his announcement, “The Millennium Falcon has landed; however, there is quite the crowd gathering outside of the ship!”

C-3PO turned to look at the approaching humans that followed behind him as they entered the freezing chamber. Poe Dameron gently ushered the droid to his right as he, Rey and Finn entered.

The large chamber remained quiet as the three newcomers offered their moment of peace for their fallen leader and his wife. 

“General,” Poe broke the moment of silence, “everyone’s outside and some are really worried. What do you think we should do?”

“Is Chewbacca still outside?” Leia asked the Resistance pilot.

“Yeah, he’s trying to keep everyone calm. What?” Poe huffed when the last Resistance General placed a dainty hand across her forehead as she rolled her eyes. 

The old Rebel wondered whose bright idea it was to have the Wookiee keep the peace!?

“Bring Chewie in and we can discuss our next course of actions. And Talyc,” Leia addressed the Mandalorian. Her walls were rebuilt around her heart and she had replaced her mask of equanimity when she spoke to him.

“Could you please remove the carbonite casing off of my husband. We’re going to have a funeral.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Olarom - welcome (as a greeting)
> 
> Ad'ika - the word for son or daughter of any age. Is also an informal word for "guy" or "lad" hense the confusion of interpretation when used.
> 
> Aay'han - a precious moment in Mandalorian culture that blends joy and grief together when thinking of a loved one.
> 
> Manda - the Mandalorian afterlife. A great collective of souls of those who lived the life of a Mandalorian.


	17. The Burial of Han Solo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Han is laid to rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY STAR WARS DAY!! AND OMG OVER 100 KUDOS!!! You are all so wonderful!!!! 
> 
> After this chapter I am caught up with my writing meaning I'll have to slow down to posting once a week which will be Mondays.
> 
> Enjoy and translation notes will be at the bottom. And again May the forth be with you!!!!

A gathering had assembled outside of the Millennium Falcon and the unfamiliar Kom’rk -fighter class ship that landed on the Resistance base in the early morning on D’Qar. Humans, droids, and alien creatures amassed the landing, the hum of their curious banter clouded the air in a haze of noise. Rose and her older sister Paige Tico pushed through the crowd as they made their way to the star ships ahead. 

“Alright outta the way! What the kark are you all standing around for!?” Paige hollered as she rammed her way through fellow Resistance members with a slim shoulder that was surprisingly firm. The older Tico sister was identical in eye and hair color to her mechanic younger sister, but her hair was longer and tied in a flowing ponytail and there was a spark in those dark brown eyes that was ready for the next fight. The dead shot gunner was taller and, underneath her coveralls, more slender in frame than Rose. 

In beauty, the sisters were equals, two sides of the same coin. But in moxie, Paige was the ornerier of the two by leaps and bounds. 

“Can anyone tell me what’s going on over here?” Rose called out to the mob of people as she and her sister continued to push through their friends and comrades to their destination ahead. Her answers came to her in bits and pieces from random voices.

“The General walked with Threepio to the lading bay about an hour ago.”

“She seemed really upset!”

“Chewie told us that General Organa was having a meeting with a Mandalorian on his ship.”

“Since when did the General hire bounty hunters?” Paige asked Rose. The younger Tico sister began to dart her dark eyes around.

“Actually,” the mechanic Tico started to explain sheepishly. Among all the hubbub lately she had neglected to tell her sister about the meeting she was part of at Takodana, “I may have forgot to tell you why I went off-planet with the Generals the other morning.”

“You _what_?” 

“O.K. – O.K.” Rose began trying to both calm her sister down as well as explain what has going on in the higher command in regards to the new addition to the Resistance, “The Mandalorian was captured by us on Jakku during a reconnaissance mission to pick up Poe; whose X-wing got pilfered by Jawas when he went and met with Lor San Tekka. Then Tekka’s camp had gotten raided by First Order troops. Poe thought for sure he was a goner until one of the stormtroopers refused orders from Captain Phasma-”

“No way! Phasma!? That woman is no joke!” Paige interrupted her younger sister.

“Right!? So this trooper out right disobeys the captain after being ordered to shoot Dameron, and they flee the scene. I think Poe might have new crush- but shh! They got separated and the stormtrooper, whose name is now Finn, ran into Rey who-”

“Rey?”

“The scavenger.”

“What scavenger?”

“Ugh! Rey lives on Jakku and found Beebee-ate, hid her from Jawas, the First Order and other scavengers, and helped get Finn to safety! Then Poe caught up with them and was mad as a swarm of Naboo bees looking for his lost droid. Then Talyc showed up, looking for Finn because he was wanted for treason for defecting the First Order. _Then_ Han and Chewie came to Jakku to pick up Poe-”

“Rose-” Paige tried to interject.

“Talyc captured Finn rivht before they could leave, and everyone went to save him-”

“Rose-” she tried again.

“Then Rey got kidnapped by one of the Knights of Ren after he kicked Talyc’s a-”

“ _Rose!! _”__

__The younger Tico sister stopped and blinked, “what?”_ _

__“Who the _kriff_ is Talyc!?” Paige shouted louder than she intended. Little sisters’ were a blessing, but stars they were a handful!_ _

__Rose pointed to the MandoMotors vessel at the landing, it’s black and green wings pointed up to the sky._ _

__“The bounty hunter that Leia hired.”_ _

__Paige sighed loudly as she rubbed her eyes in frustration. The Tico sisters finally made it to the head of the crowd and found C-3PO standing alone at the end of the ramp outside of the bounty hunter’s ship._ _

__“Hey, Threepio,” the older Tico greeted the protocol droid who jumped upon hearing his name before turning to see the sisters. “What’s happening in there? Where’s General Organa?”_ _

__“Ah! Mistress Tico! And Mistress Tico! This is quite the development!” C-3PO greeted the sisters, oblivious to the stern glare of the older Tico._ _

__“Spare me and just explain where Leia is,” Paige ordered the golden droid._ _

__“Oh! Well, Mistress Leia is inside Master Mandalorian’s ship with Master Poe, Mistress Rey, Master Finn, and Master Chewbacca.” C-3PO answered matter-of-factly._ _

__“Wait,” Rose pushed her way in between her sister and the droid, “what about General Solo? Where is Han in all of this?”_ _

__C-3PO jerked his head and body about to mimic the action of looking around while he processed his answer._ _

__“My apologies, Mistress Tico, but I do not know.”_ _

__The Tico sisters and the Skywalker servant turned to the Mythosaur’s gang plank to see none other than General Organa with her left arm linked with Chewbacca’s as she stood at the open entrance of the of the Mandalorian fighter class vessel. The entire Resistance in attendance stopped their chattering and stood in silence and bated breath when they saw her._ _

__There was an atmosphere of heartbreak about the two Rebels from the Old War that Paige and Rose did not like._ _

__Leia and Chewbacca stepped down the ramp that led them from the ship to the planet’s surface. Once the two warriors of the Old Rebellion planted their feet on the dusty asphalt of the landing, the Resistance observed in quiet stillness a Mandalorian armored in black, and an unknown woman clothed in white, standing at each side of a hovering medical stretcher. The crowd and the planet was silent, all except for the steps of the pallbearers’ feet as they clicked softly on the duristeel ramp. Behind the Mandalorian and the stranger in white, Poe Dameron and an unknown young man stood at the back corners of the stretcher._ _

__The three humans with faces uncovered were mournful as their eyes shined with welling tears; the armored bounty hunter being the only one who was unreadable as they walked along the stretcher. The figure that lay there was still and unmoving, their identity obstructed by the angle of the ramp they traveled down._ _

__Being close enough to the ship to see who was being assisted down the ramp, Rose and Paige placed their hands over their mouths to hush the gasps and sobs that tried to crawl from their lips when they realized who it was that the four humans were carrying down. Various members of the Resistance made their shock and pain known by holding each other in mourning; others simply lowered their heads. All the while the sea of people and creatures of various races split in two to allow the short funeral caravan to pass as they carried the body of General Han Solo to his final resting place on D’Qar._ _

__Since the peculiar awakening within her on Jakku before being abducted by the First Order, Rey had been overwhelmed by the emotions of everyone and everything in the known Galaxy. The weight of the Resistance’s grief had begun to crush her mind and spirit, especially the presence of someone close by, whose heart felt as if it was being ripped apart from inside their ribcage. The scavenger could not pin point the source of the devastated cries that scattered into the Force as the energy was chaotic with so many people projecting their grief so loudly into the Force’s winds. Rey tried to shield herself from the onslaught of loss the masses around her were feeling as she marched on._ _

__Death is life, is that not what Talyc had told her on Starkiller?_ _

__Then how was it that Han’s death pained her so?_ _

__In a futile attempt to distract herself from the pain, Rey thought of Ben. The man who, just a few hours before, as the Millennium Falcom sailed through the hyperlane to D’Qar, lost his father the day before. She smiled internally at the thought of finally getting to know the name of the man who visited her via the world of dreams for the last few years, who somehow now had the power to see her, to _touch_ her, from worlds away. _ _

__Ben...was that the name the old Imperial Admiral uttered before she shot Han in the chest? If so, did that mean that the fallen General’s lost, presumed dead, son and the bereft man who appeared to her last night in the Falcon’s cargo bay as a physical apparition were one and the same? And what about Talyc, who watched the world with eyes identical to Ben’s in every way conceivable, down to the hurt they both hid behind them? The Mandalorian whose rage pulsated through the Force, after he threw himself over the edge or the railing and down the oscillator pit to follow Han, in a tidal wave that still frightened her to recall._ _

__It was a bellow of despair and anger that seemed to shake the stars themselves when she felt it._ _

__The Mandalorian could lie to her until the Unknown regions became discovered territory, but Rey knew the origins of the tsunami that rippled through the Force was him._ _

__The scavenger’s speculation of Talyc continued as she marched in the procession through the Resistance base. If this armored and mysterious man who walked beside her was in fact Ben Solo, why did he insist on hiding? Why would he willingly continue his parents’ suffering and not reunite with them? Those questions and more invaded her mind for the rest of their trek to the foot of the mountain in the outskirts of the Resistance base._ _

__Once the procession reached their destination, Rey took in her surroundings as Leia ushered them where to stand before stepping before them. The mountainside was thick and soft with mosses of many type of greens and blues, and the earth was black with fertility. The scavenger never knew that dirt had different colors as she only knew pale yellow sand. It was a beautiful place to be dead, to be surrounded by so much life._ _

__The last Resistance General held out her hands in front of her, palms down, and closed her eyes. Rey could feel the Force swirl around the old woman she had just met moments ago. When she lowered her hands, to the scavenger’s awe, the ground opened before everyone to create a hole long, wide and deep enough to lay her husband to rest. The masses were shaken and marveled by the revelation that one of their High Command could harness the supernatural energy so easily. Some, as noted by the shock on their faces and their force signatures, wondered what other secrets could General Organa be hiding?_ _

__The thoughts and suspicions of the general audience were halted to silence as Leia turned around and began to speak with her old friend Chewbacca and the four humans who stood around the body of Han Solo behind them. When she said the words unheard by the masses to her companion and the pallbearers, the Resistance General faced her friends and troops once more._ _

__“We are here today,” Leia began her speech, “to lay to rest one of the most independent members of the resistance; and one of the wildest of the Rebels I had ever had the privilege to fight alongside. When I met General Solo, he was an unlikely hero who managed to complain every step of the way. But as I lay him to rest, we will all know him as a man of great conviction and determination.”_ _

__General Organa looked at as many of her comrades as she could see, their tears reflecting the ones she desperately held back to help them stay strong in their time of mourning._ _

__“Han Solo was a scoundrel, a man who saw the Galaxy as his Sedrian oyster, and all of us the shining pearl he found contained inside. And yet he died not as a smuggling renegade, but as a man of duty. A man who swore his commitment to ensure a safe future for those who were in tune with the Force, and those whose voices were muffled into submission by the First Order._ _

__“Han is preceded in death by our only son Ben. Whom, as someone recently told me, Han will reunite with in a World Between Worlds.”_ _

__Talyc was humbled to know his words, had soothed his mother’s glass heart like balm on a wound._ _

__General Organa turned back to the four who stood beside her fallen husband and quietly addressed them to step forward and position the hover stretcher over the open earth she had created for his burial plot._ _

__“I need you three to stand beside me and help this old woman out,” Leia spoke to Finn, Rey and Talyc in a voice unspoken through the Force. The defector glanced at Rey in disbelief as she turned to look back at him with the same look of surprise on her face, all while the Mandalorian strode over and stood beside the General. The younger of the Force-sensitives followed suit, with Finn standing on the other side of General Organa and Rey standing beside Talyc._ _

__“Let this be lesson number one in your Jedi training. That there is no death; there is only the Force.” Leia whispered to the three who stood beside her before she held out her right hand again, quietly commanding the others to do so as well through her soul’s voice in the Force._ _

__“Ni cuy’ nayc Jetiise.” Talyc mumbled to her defiantly._ _

__“Gar cuyir ibi’tuur!” his mother scolded in Mando’a. Oblivious to how familial the exchange of words were to the mandalorian._ _

__The four Force-users held out their right hands, and on the Resistance General’s order, concentrated on the energy around them. Rey, Finn, and Talyc placed their focus on holding Han’s body in place while Poe and Chewbacca removed the hover stretcher beneath. Once the pilot and the Wookiee had moved to their left, the four continued their focus, with Han levitating above his final resting place._ _

__The General, the scavenger, the Mandalorian, and the defector, with their hands forward to keep their fallen friend, husband and father steady, the quartet of the Force played their parts of the melancholy melody as they lowered their hands and the fallen General descended into the dirt._ _

__Rey allowed the tears to fall freely as they escaped her eyes. She called out through the Force for the one man who she believed should have been present in the hopes that he would hear her. And if Talyc was who she was starting to believe he was had heard her, that maybe he would answer._ _

__“Ben, if only you were here. Your mother needs you.”_ _

__Talyc heard the scavenger’s plea to the lost son of Han and Leia, and once again he was being torn apart. After his father dying in his arms, after bonding with Rey through bending the very fabric of the Galaxy with the Force, and his heartwarming conversation with his mother a short time ago; Talyc wanted nothing more than to answer Rey and tell her _I am here_ and let her know that the lost son had a hand in lowering his father into his final resting place in the black fertile earth of D’Qar. But the mandalorian chose to remain silent as if her yearning for him fell on deaf ears, despite knowing that the scavenger knew her message was heard. And he raised his walls around his heart like he felt his mother do on his ship, hiding half of his soul away behind iron and honor. _ _

__Ben Solo was dead, and Talyc Solus took his place in the world._ _

__This is the Way._ _

__The Resistance, without a single word spoken, began to line up in a single file before the burial plot so they could pay their final respects to their fallen General. Leia began the solemn ritual by bending down to grab a handful of soil, urging the three beside her to do the same. Poe and Chewbacca came forward and followed their lead. The six mourners surrounded the hole in the earth; they stood, with Poe, Leia and Chewbacca on one side, and Talyc, Rey, and Finn opposite of the seasoned resistance fighters. They held out their hands together and let the loose dirt fall from their palms into Han’s grave before stepping back to allow the rest of the Resistance to do the same._ _

__Before the sprinkled dirt of D’Qar fell on his father’s body, Talyc had succumbed quietly to his grief and could not endure any longer the waves of everyone’s stress that cascaded through the Force, pulling him further down into his own agony under the riptide of collective sadness they unleashed unto the celestial currents. But rather than be swallowed whole by everyone’s grief, the mandalorian walked away from the sobbing crowd to find peace the only way he learned how. By being alone._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ni cuy’ nayc Jetiise - I am no Jedi!
> 
> Gar cuyir ibi’tuur - You are today!


	18. Grief and Childish Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talyc is given a piece of his past. And Rey decides to let go of a piece of hers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am truly humbled by the kudos and comments. Thank you so much! 
> 
> Translation notes are at the bottom.

After wandering the woods outside of the Resistance base, Talyc found a clearing in the trees by a cliff that overlooked green mountains and jungles in the distance. The mandalorian stepped to the cliff’s edge and sat down, dangling his feet over the lush green void of plant life below. The sky was a dull blue gray that faded into a dark horizon of storm clouds in the distance. 

Talyc begged within his heart for the rain to fall, so the sky could rinse away the black ichor of melancholy that sullied his soul. The mandalorian wanted nothing more than for this day to end so that he may return to the stars above and wash his hands of the mess he had been thrown into. He wondered what Din would do if something similar had happened to him. He wondered what Din would say if he told him all that had happened. But then Talyc remembered that his clan head’s one job was to find Vod’ika’s home and over twenty years later the Child was still in the older Mandalorian’s care, sparking a lingering hope that his brother in armor could possibly be understanding of his recent troubles.

Maybe Talyc was destined to be found by Din Djarin, so that the Clan of Three would be nothing but a motley bunch of nostalgic fools.

The mandalorian heard from behind him the simpering growl of Shyriiwook and was brought back to the world of the present.

“You brood worse than your old man, Sprout.”

Talyc turned around to face his Wookiee uncle who stood tall a few feet behind him. Chewbacca walked over to his nephew and held out a furry paw as he growled at him again in his native animal language.

“What did I always tell you about dangling your legs over edges?”

The mandalorian rolled his eyes indignantly under his helmet and took his uncle’s clawed hand to pull himself up. “That it’s dangerous, and if you caught me doing it again you’d hang me upside down over said edge.” 

He could tell by the glint in Chewie’s eyes and the dampness of his furry cheeks that the Wookiee had been crying, and that his other paw held tight onto an object hidden within his grasp.

“Now just because you’re grown and can use fancy jetpacks and the Force doesn’t mean I’ll stop worrying about you,” Chewbacca scolded his nephew with a series of grunts and grumbles. The Wookiee brought his closed fist to Talyc’s hand and dropped something into it, “because I want to see you give _this_ to _your_ Sprout someday.”

The mandalorian opened his gloved hand and was rendered breathless as he let the object roll about in his palm. In his hand were a pair of Gold chance cubes linked together with a chain made of the same precious metal. He remembered vividly carrying them everywhere he went as he toddled around the Millennium Falcon when he was but a youngling.

_“One day, I’ll be the best pilot in the Galaxy! Just like Papa!”_

And he did, Talyc was one of the best pilots on land and among the stars.

But Han would never know, and never get to see, how much like his father Ben Solo had grown up to become.

The air around Talyc became heavy as the weight of his father’s death came crashing down on his shoulders once more and he fell into the arms of his uncle. His sobs were loud and uncontrolled has he unapologetically cried into Chewie’s woolly chest. Clinging onto the dice with one hand and grabbing a fistful of Wookiee fur in the other like he did as a small child after countless scraped knees and bruised heads. And Chewbacca, as he had always done, wrapped his long fuzzy arms around his Mandalorian nephew lovingly to console him without judgment. Placing his head on the top of Talyc’s beskar helmet as held his shaking nephew close.

**

Rey sat in the mess hall surrounded by so many new faces of the Resistance, faces that were welcoming and friendly with no ulterior motives. Sitting before a plate heaping with foods of the likes she had never seen the scavenger was hungry, but she felt sick to her stomach. She was lost in a growing sea of people but Rey of Jakku had never felt so alone.

It may have been due to her life in the desert sands, or her recent incarceration in the clutches of the First Order, but Rey felt as if the walls of the mess hall were closing in on her. 

“Um...excuse me,” the scavenger asked a portly man with a scruffy beard across the table who sat with a woman with black hair, brown eyes and a beauty mark above her lip on the right side; Rey was certain that their names were Snap and Jess. “I’m not feeling well and I don’t want to waste this meal. But I don’t see any-”

“Here,” the woman said, sliding an empty plastoid container across the table, “you can pack your food in there for later. I always keep one on me, just in case.”

“In case of what?” the scavenger cocked an eyebrow and tried to read her new friend.

“When a person lives a life like _we_ have, you know that can mean anything. I grew up a slave. I know it’s not the same, but hardship is hardship, and sometimes it never leaves you. No matter how far away you leave _it_ behind.”

Astounded by the girl known as Jess’ generosity and compassion, Rey took the container graciously and with a soft, quiet “Thank you” from her lips she began to spoon the food into the small plastoid box.

“Don’t mention it,” Jess assured the scavenger, “if there’s anything you need, just ask the big guy here,” she gestured to her friend Snap, “or myself.” 

Once Rey had emptied the plate into the container, she capped the lid and thanked her new friends again before excusing herself from the table so that they could return to their meals. And the scavenger exited the mess hall as fast as she could.

The cool misty air of D’Qar’s mountain range was a welcoming relief as the scavenger walked through the Resistance base at a brisk pace towards the woods. The smell of plant life and the coming rain was an intoxicating perfume that lulled Rey into a state of calm as the gray sky above her became a collage of green leaves, brown branches and white light muted by the overcast clouds above the forest canopy. The young woman in all her eighteen years of life had never experienced such lush beauty.

The soft breeze that swept her loose hair away from her shoulders reminded her of the innocent, yet intimate, moment she shared with her newfound companion.

Ben, his name was Ben.

The scavenger reveled in the light fluttering in her stomach that felt as if a swarm of Endor blue butterflies were tickling her insides with the tips of their paper thin wings. The sensation was as unusual, but Rey welcomed it and the smile that curled her lips that followed. It was then that she realized for the first time in her life, the signature three knots she wore since even before her abandonment at the age of five were not in place. Only the top knot that held a third of her hair, keeping it from flowing in the wind with the rest of her loose locks, remained. What surprised Rey the most was how she had neglected to tie the other two knots back in place as she compulsively did her whole life on her own, and she did not miss the practical hairstyle’s confinement. 

Those three knots were the only relic of a time when she had a family, representing a time forgotten. And it had become clear in the previous days that holding onto something one cannot even remember seemed trivial and childish.

And sometimes childish things were meant to be left behind. After all, that is what the people who brought her into this world had done.

With a deep breath that seemed to cleanse her very soul, Rey allowed the past to drift away with the mountain breeze. And felt the iron weight of what she held onto all these years seem to become light as the free strands of her hair that floated in the moving air around her. Because now it seemed to make sense all of a sudden, that her parents may never come back for her. But for that one promise broken, two were made and fulfilled; one by Talyc on Jakku, who swore to come back for her, and the other by Ben in the holding cell on Starkiller when he told her that help was coming.

So deep in thought, the scavenger hugged the container of food to her chest as she walked aimlessly though the forest until a familiar voice called out through the Force had startled her.

“Rey.”

She knew the voice came from beyond the physical realm, and the scavenger recognized right away the low timbre of the voice’s source. She searched round the forest waiting for Ben to emerge from the trees and shadowy green. Only to find the tall, dark figure of Talyc, armored in painted beskar, to enter the forest path from the tall trees.

It was not the sight of the Mandalorian that intrigued her, but the way he paused upon seeing her and the way his Force signature bloomed with a familiar light that aroused her suspicions. And how his hand was clenched tight around an object she could not see.

The Mandalorian swore to her with what Rey believed was his dying breath that he would find her, only for Ben to remind her in the darkest hours that _they_ would come for her. Those dark obsidian eyes that peered at her though iron and broken glass she shattered herself were identical to the ones that gazed at her with longing in the Millennium Falcon’s cargo bay. Even the first words Talyc ever spoke to the scavenger revealed the possible secret that the Mandalorian hid behind his beskar’gam.

The way he froze when he first saw her at Niima outpost and uttered one word that sparked the beginning of their comradery. 

_“You!”_

And the last words he whispered in her ear before prowling off like a loth wolf during that same conversation.

_“In time, Oya’ika, for you haven’t seen the last me.”_

Rey looked at the Mandalorian before her as she continued her stream of suspecting thoughts. She recalled the recent events that occurred on Starkiller base. How his use of the Force to pull her out of darkness so deep the scavenger believed she would not have been able to climb out of her misery if he had not been there. And the ethereal presence in her mind that soothed her with the Light and a voice she now recognized as Ben’s. But it was their duel against the two gunners in the snowy forest that peaked her curiosities and confirmed in her heart everything she needed to know. Rey remembered the stunning image of the armored warrior, shining in the blue light of the night, who stood with her in victory as blood dripped down from under his buy’ce.

And the freshly cleaned cut that swelled in a light pink line across Ben’s chin as he sat before her in the cargo bay not too long after.

Stars! That was all the proof she needed! 

Rey squared her shoulders; standing as tall as she could before the Mandalorian who she believed, without a doubt in her soul, had captured her heart that was once as hard as R’iia’s judgment on the lands of Jakku.

“I know who you are.”

Talyc felt his heart begin to race like a battle drum as he tried to feign ignorance.

“Who I am stands before you.”

“I mean the man behind the mask!”

The mandalorian straightened his stance and sauntered to the suspicious scavenger. He had to do something to redirect her focus. Even if Rey knew who he was behind his beskar’gam, what did she think would come of it? As far as he knew, not a single living soul was allowed to see the face of the man or woman behind their Mandalorian armor. Talyc had already broken that commandment once when he revealed his identity to Han Solo while his father was teetering on the edges of life and death. He would prefer if he did not risk damnation a second time. 

Maybe it was alright if the scavenger knew that the Mandalorian who towered over her was two people, and it was acceptable that he cared for her deeply in a way Talyc never thought he was capable of. But the truth at the bottom of all of these thoughts was that Talyc really only knew a small portion of the massive culture that was the Way of the Mandalorian. And the only way he could learn more about his found people, and give this woman who held his heart and soul in her hands since the dream they shared right before this epic journey began the closure she deserved, was to find other tribes and expand his knowledge of his found people’s history and traditions.

But for now, Talyc could only try to prolong what he hoped would be inevitable and explain why she could not have what she desired. If there were some way she would know he would be left wanting as well.

“Do you know why a Mandalorian wears their beskar’gam, Oya’ika?” Talyc looked down at the alluring woman whose heart he feared would break when he told her what he needed to say. The woman whose eyes stared back at him, hard and demanding the truth finally be out.

“I will not put up with you pussy footing around this, but I will humor you and tell you it is because your people are a tribe of principles beyond race. And your armor is the bond that connects you all.” The scavenger sneered as she spoke to the Mandalorian and the Prince who hid behind him.

Talyc ignored the scavenger’s comment and continued, leaning ever closer to her as he spoke. It pained him to tell Rey after their astral rendezvous hours before that the Force would be the only way they could come together without the restraints and obligations of his way of life. Otherwise he would toe the line of damnation and the mandalorian was growing unsure he could keep himself from letting go and falling down that void.

Had he not sullied his armor enough? 

“When a foundling is given their beskar’gam, the person they once were dies with their past. And from the death of the past, the Mandalorian is reborn. This is called cin vhetin, and it saved my life ten years ago in ways I cannot tell you.”

Rey tried to blink away the tears in her eyes. She was not some naive fool, she knew damn well what he was trying to say and she was furious and disappointed. 

Why did he have to be this way? His identity could be their secret, one that the scavenger would cherish more than water in the desert. 

“Ben,” Rey urged the Mandalorian to reconsider in a voice that cracked, “Please.”

Talyc gently pressed two fingers onto the scavenger’s lips to hush the plea that he feared he could not resist. Lips that the mandalorian wished he could touch with his bare skin and relish in their softness, that looked sweet as honey as his birth name fell from them. They were lips that would no doubt lead to his downfall if he did not tread lightly. 

He moved his hand from silencing her to cradle her cheek, and the way she leaned into his gloved hand willingly began to crumble the foundation of his beliefs that kept him balanced for the last ten years of his life. And he tried desperately to push her away with as much gentleness as he could. 

“Ben Solo died on a desert planet long ago. I’m sorry, I _can’t_ be your lost prince.”

The mandalorian savored the warmth of her face in his hand; recalling how soft her skin was when he held her so tenderly during the dream they shared in the form of her prison cell, before slowly pulling away and walking past her. He needed to go to his ship, or hide somewhere in the forest around them. He needed to com his clan and get away from the Resistance, his mother, from _her_ as soon as possible.

“I won’t let this go,” Rey turned to the man that was walking away from her to continue dwelling in his private hell of indecision, “not after what’s happened to us out there! I don’t understand the Force like you do, but I _know_ it’s bound us together for a reason!”

Talyc had to put an end to this, if he did not he was sure he would bring shame to his clan, the family who has cared for him without expectations or questions. So he channeled the darker parts of himself that he had let sink away into the deepest parts of his psyche and spat out the most horrible lie he had ever told.

“Us!? There is no _us_. Ni cuy’ nayc Manda’ade!”

After speaking his peace, the lie that was leaving him wounded within his armor, Talyc stormed off and disappeared into the forest from where he came.

Rey stood alone in the small clearing. Her body shaking with rage and rejection as she held the small container in her hand so tight that the plastoid began to crack before she threw it with all her might into the woods. She knew the moment those words fell into her ears that he had just handed her a pile of bantha shit and expected her to just take it and go about her life! She stomped off in the opposite direction of the Mandalorian, whose armor clearly was more important to him than his own heart and desires.

The scavenger needed to cool her anger and clear her head. And she needed to talk to someone who could provide guidance. She could not talk to Poe or Finn about this, doing so would risk the very thing that Talyc was trying to protect. Then it dawned on her that the perfect person was right under her nose. 

Rey needed General Organa’s guidance. So with a new fire in her belly and a heart restored with fresh optimism she ran back to the Resistance base to find Leia.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oya'ika - little hunter. Talyc/Ben chose that as the closest word for scavenger.
> 
> cin vhetin - a term for a clean slate. It's an important reminder when one becomes a Mandalorian in regards to their past.
> 
> Ni cuy’ nayc Manda’ade! "I am not a ghost" The word Manda'ade is a play on the word Mando'ade(people of planet mandalore) mesh of the word Manda (afterlife) and the -'ade (people) suffix.


	19. The Sins of the Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey finds General Organa to discuss the matters of her son.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am humbled each week with how many people have checked out this story. Thank you all for Kudos and Comments! It means a lot as I'm still waiting to go back to work.
> 
> I have bumped the chapter limit to 45 chapters.

Nature had a strange effect on the scavenger Rey. The magic of the green leaves and the misty cool air of the approaching evening, alive with all types of life both seen and invisible, had a power over the girl that soothed her spirit that had moments before been consumed by the fires of fury. After storming through the woods for an hour, Rey felt she had finally found the right mindset to seek out General Organa and ask her about Ben, her lost son. 

She decided she was going to tell the General everything! That Talyc was Ben hiding behind a mask, and that the two of them had been sharing an extraordinary connection that Rey herself did not understand. The scavenger thought meticulously over the words she was going to say as she returned to the Resistance base close by. Marching with a determined stride through the cargo bins and various fighter class star ships.

“Rey!” an unfamiliar voice called out from behind the scavenger.

Rey of Jakku turned around to find a young woman around her age running up to her in mechanic’s coveralls, clinging a datapad tightly to her chest as she approached. The scavenger recognized her as one of the Resistance fighters at the head of the crowd when she helped the others walk General Solo to his final resting place. 

Out of Talyc’s ship.

Ben’s ship.

She understood why he lied, but it still did not sooth the scavenger’s anger over the matter.

“Yes?” the scavenger in white answered the mechanic who stood before her.

The girl, with straight black hair tied up, bowled over with her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath. She then looked up at Rey with bark brown almond shaped eyes and offered her hand to introduce herself.

“My name...is Rose...Tico!” the girl huffed as Rey took her hand and shook it. 

Rose straightened herself up and wiped the sweat from her brow.

“Whoo! It’s a pleasure to finally meet you!”

The scavenger could not help but smile at the mechanic, she somehow felt an instant kinship with Rose. “Likewise. But how do know who I am?”

“I was one of the members in charge of Operation Nova.” when Rey looked at Rose with a confused stare, the Resistance mechanic reiterated, “That was the operation, you know, to get you back here.” Rose searched around before adding, “Say, I’m surprised Talyc isn’t with you.”

“Is that so,” Rey scoffed, turning around to cross her arms as Rose continued to look around to spot if the Mandalorian was nearby. 

Rose titled her head in surprise over Rey’s cold behavior, “I’m serious! He seems to care a lot about you. Did you two know each other on Jakku?”

‘No, not on Jakku,’ Rey thought as she tried to seem indignant over the mention of the Mandalorian, ‘we met someplace between the stars themselves.’

“No, I’ve known him just about as long as you have. Why do you ask?” 

Rey turned to face Rose again with a raised eyebrow, but her stance had relaxed.

The mechanic held her datapad closer to her chest as she answered Rey’s question, but the scavenger could feel, almost _see_ , in the Resistance fighter’s Force-signature the longing for something, or someone, far away.

“It’s just that at our debriefing for the mission, Talyc had Told General Organa that without you, he would have to face the Galaxy alone.”

“What do you mean _‘alone’_?” Rey spat out unintentionally, “Why would he say that at that briefing?”

The scavenger could not believe what the woman she just met was telling her.

“The meeting had taken place during the calamity that befell the Hosnian System. Finn and Leia felt it happen too, but Talyc,” Rose placed her fingers under her chin as she tried to find the best words, “for him it was so much worse. It was truly awful to watch.”

Rose remembered how the Mandalorian destroyed a portion of Maz’s conference room and the wordless blood-curdling cries he let out.

“Leia, tried to console him, and told Talyc about Ben, how their connection to the Force was similar in how strong and unique it was, and how if Talyc and Ben were to have somehow known each other in their youth, maybe her son wouldn’t have met his fate ten years ago.” the Resistance mechanic finished her story. 

‘The nerve of that armor wearing bastard! To trick his own mother for stars’ sake!’ Rey thought in silence.

“But Talyc told the General that if he didn’t get you out of Starkiller, he’d be alone in the Galaxy without you.”

The scavenger was rendered speechless by Rose’s testimony and images of a hazy memory from Starkiller appeared in her mind. Rey recalled seeing the Mandalorian unconscious on the bridge as Stormtroopers dragged her away to the interrogation room. To know that memory was not just a mirage, but another example of their astral bond. And that he was in full armor showed to Rey that neither of them had any control over these sporadic connections.

What in R’iia’s wrath was the Force doing to the two of them?

With the new information fresh in her mind, Rey pulled Rose into a quick embrace before she let go and hurried off to find General Organa. Leaving the mechanic to watch the scavenger run away as she wondered over how strange the Resistance’s newest member was.

**

The foot of the mountain where Han was laid to rest had become cleared of the bereaved, and the earth of D’Qar had been replaced on the burial plot. The last of the Resistance who stayed behind were some of the faction’s High Command; General Organa, Admiral Ackbar, and Lieutenant Connix.

The three stood before General Solo’s grave. The Mon Calamari Admiral and the human Lieutenant at each side of their General, and leader.

“My condolences, General, Han truly was a good man. And one of the wildest pilots I had the privilege to see in action on the battlefield.” Ackbar consoled his old friend and fellow Rebel of the Galactic Civil War.

“If only he had offered time to train new recruits to fly as well as he did.” Leia acknowledged her Mon Calamari friend, “But lingering on ‘what if’s’ will surely be our downfall. We must focus on the possible ‘will be’s’, Admiral.”

“Permission to speak freely, General?” Lieutenant Connix requested of her superior officer.

“Go ahead, Lieutenant.”

“With all due respect, General Organa, but why?”

“Why what, Connix?”

“Why did you give the honor of lowering General Solo’s body to those strangers and Dameron? Why not reserve that honor to the High Command?”

“Because those four fighters were with Han to the very end. And from what I understand, Connix, if it weren’t for them there would be no body to mourn.”

“But,” Connix argued, “no one understands why you allowed that Mandalorian to be a part of -”

“That’s enough Lieutenant!” Admiral Ackbar scolded Connix a deep warbling voice. “Not only is the General your commanding officer, she is the last member of the Alderaan Royal Family! And you _will_ treat her as such!”

“But Admiral-”

“That’s an order, Lieutenant!”

“That’s enough! Both of you!” Leia’s volume was low but the commanding tone stopped the two High Command Officers’ bickering immediately. “I will _not_ deal with petty arguments while the dirt has yet to settle over my dead husband!”

The admiral and Lieutenant froze and met their eyes with the last General, whose glare had a fire that was infamous during her Rebel days. The Mon Calamari had always admired the Princesses flame, and today General Organa proved that she would never cease to amaze the old creature, no matter her age. Connix; however, had never seen the Resistance General so angry and decided to follow the instructions of her superiors

Leia sighed again and shook her head. She waved nonchalantly at the other High Command Officers, signaling them to be at ease.

“My apologies, Connix. You have every right to question my actions. I am not the Empire. The young man Finn and the Scavenger Rey are new recruits. The Mandalorian was hired by me as extra help to bring the girl back to us. He and I will be having a discussion about payment soon. After that, he’ll be on his way.”

The truth in her statement pained Leia. The General knew from the beginning that the Mandalorian’s involvement was temporary, but there was something about the young man that made her sad to see him go. The conversations Leia and Talyc had were fulfilling to the old woman in ways she could not quite understand, like talking to an old friend she dearly missed. 

Within a secret part of herself that she would not reveal, the Mandalorian reminded Leia of Ben. With his deep connection to the Force; and how his Force-signature always pulsed in a familiar way before being closed off and hushed by his own guarded nature. But what intrigued Leia the most was the moment Talyc sat down beside her at the Castle with her father’s lightsaber attached to his belt. Having last seen the relic in the hands of her twin brother before it was lost with his right hand, the old Rebel withheld the urge to reach out to the Mandalorian’s buy’ce believing if she managed to tear off the mask, she would see her son’s face.

“General Organa,” a young voice spoke, pulling Leia out of her deep thoughts. Internal inquiries she focused on so intently that she barely noticed the scavenger Rey standing close by, huffing as if she ran all over base in search of her. 

Sometimes the Force cues when it is time to cast those personal thoughts aside for another time.

“Afternoon, Rey. It’s good to finally meet you formally,” the Resistance General greeted as the two women walked to each other, coming together half way. “My name is Leia Organa-Solo, but I’m sure you’re already aware of who I am.” She added as she held her hand out to shake the scavenger’s in introduction.

“It’s an honor to meet you. I’ll forever be in debt to you and Han for all that you both have done.”

“The debt is paid,” Leia waved away the compliment and smiled, “I’m just glad to see you safe.”

Rey was humbled by the General’s kindness. Having lived a life where such manners were a front to conceal devious intents, the scavenger felt nothing but truth and warmth behind Leia’s words. But the scavenger steeled her resolve as she was determined to discuss the matters of the General’s son.

“Thank you, General, but it’s important that I speak to you.” she looked at the Mon Calamari and the human a short distance away. “In private.”

The Resistance General knew a person with a troubled heart when she saw one. Leia obliged as she turned to the Admiral and Lieutenant, nodding at them to signal the end of their informal meeting before walking away with the young scavenger. As the distance between the two pairs grew, Rey could not help but look over her shoulder to see the High Command Officers that were left behind. Leia placed an arm around her shoulders and gestured forward to her personal quarters nearby.

General Organa’s sleeping quarter’s which also served as her office was a modest abode with only a bed, a small dresser, a desk with a small glow panel lamp, and three wooden chairs arranged with one behind the desk and two facing the front. The minimalist features of the room reminded Rey of her humble shell of a home back on Jakku. When the women crossed the threshold and entered the office, Leia showed the scavenger her seat in front of the desk before sauntering around and sitting down in the chair behind it. The General informally placed her hands on her desk one over the other, and with a soft warm smile cut right to the chase.

“So, what troubles you Rey of Jakku?”

The scavenger, who placed her hands on her lap, was suddenly at a loss for words. Rey pondered over where she should start.

“General. What happened to your son?”

Leia paused and took a deep breath. The old Rebel had not expected the girl to ask about _that_.

“Please, call me Leia,” General Organa choked out, feigning composure as she tried to ready herself for what she predicted to be a difficult conversation, “but before we continue this discussion, I would like to know _why_.”

“Why what?”

“Why is it that you want to know about my son Ben?”

Rey took a deep breath as she composed herself, mulling over why she wished to meet with Leia. The scavenger feared that the Resistance General was going to think she was insane.

“Last night, on the Falcon, I was visited by a vision of a man. He had dark hair and eyes, his skin was fair. He called himself ‘Ben’, and he told me that he was mourning the death of his father. I hoped you would be able to shed some light on what I saw.”

General Organa leaned back in her seat. She was herself familiar with the Force and her riddles hidden behind visions, and Rey’s experience was most likely just that. But something gnawed at Leia’s conscience in regards to the subject of her son’s spirit visiting the Force-sensitive scavenger. Clearly the orphaned girl from Jakku had a bond with the Force deeper than the roots of any uneti tree.

“It seems to me,” The resistance General began to answer Rey’s questions, “that my son has visited you through the Force. I’d be a liar if I told you I was not envious, but it is the way of things. So I will tell you my son’s tragic tale.

“Throughout Ben’s childhood; even before he as born, I had sensed a dark presence that lingered with him. Unsure of what to do to help my son, he was sent to the Jedi Temple to train under my twin brother Luke. You’ve heard of him, yes?”

Rey lowered her eyes to think. Luke, as in the Rebel regarded as the one person to aid in the victory of the Galactic Civil War? The man who defeated Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine on the second Death Star?

Luke, as in _the_ Luke Skywalker!?

“If your brother is Luke Skywalker, then that makes you...” Rey trailed off, enamored by being in the presence of not just any woman, but a princess!

Leia smiled and her eyes glimmered with a sly spark, “The one and only. You didn’t know before?”

“Honestly I’ve been so overwhelmed with everything to have pieced it all together.” Rey chuckled with a bright smile, despite how silly she felt about her ignorance of who her new friends were, it was the first time that she had laughed in quite a while. 

And damn did it feel so liberating!

Leia nodded and understood the scavenger’s predicament.

“ _War_ is overwhelming. Never forget that.” The General informed Rey before she brought their conversation back to the original subject.

“ _Ahem_. As I was saying. Ben was not only sent to Luke to train his abilities with the Force, but to also be monitored by my brother as we had all grown to fear the Darkness that continuously tried to consume him.”

“Afraid?” Rey questioned the Resistance General. The Ben she had encountered was nothing but kind; a little guarded and willing to protect himself, but other than normal apprehension, the scavenger felt nothing but good within him. “I don’t understand. When is see- that is to say when I _saw_ him, all I felt from Ben was Light.”

Leia lowered her eyes, and Rey felt a mother’s shame crawl out into the Force before it was pulled back behind the walls of the Princess’ heart.

“And there lies our family’s shame in failing my son. As years passed, Ben’s struggles with the Darkness grew. His rage and his growing hopelessness had begun to devour him. And my brother took it upon himself to do what he believed the Force was instructing him to.”

Rey’s eyes widened in horror when she heard the next words that escaped Leia’s thin lips.

“My brother, Luke Skywalker, the Last Jedi, fell prey to his own Darkness. And acting on his fear, killed my only son.”

“What?!” Rey whispered, shocked by the terrible revelation and twist in the sad story the Resistance General was telling her.

“It’s the truth. Luke murdered my son believing he was preserving the balance in the Force. But in doing so, Luke realized that he was unbalanced, and because he was afraid, he answered the Dark’s call. I saw to it as his blood and only equal in the Force that he shut down the Jedi Temple and I exiled him to an unknown location.”

Rey could not believe what she was hearing; the betrayal, the anger and fear that forged it, and the despair of those who were hurt the most. 

“But that doesn’t explain why I saw him. Why did Ben come to _me_ of all people?”

Leia sat in her chair, her brown eyes soulful yet somber as she looked into Rey’s. The scavenger realized that the eyes that looked into her own were the same as Ben’s.

“That answer, sadly, I don’t have. My only guess is that Ben may have somehow ascended into the Force when he perished. He was a gifted young man, and was always a very studious boy; it wouldn’t have surprised me a bit if he studied the Force on his own in secret, and learned a few things Luke wasn’t willing to teach yet. When we received the news of Ben’s death Han and I never received a body to mourn, and I always felt that the Force was to blame for that.”

The small room grew quiet as Rey processed and Leia once again grieved. But the scavenger had one more question she desired to be answered. 

“General- I mean- _Leia_ , what if I told you that I think Ben may somehow be _connected_ to Talyc?”

The old Rebellion fighter smiled, but Rey only felt a resigned sadness that radiated from her Force-signature.

“My dear,” Leia sighed before she continued, “I can see your curiosity as I see also see my son in the Mandalorian you speak of. But unfortunately not only is it improbable, but even if it were so, when one becomes a Mandalorian the-”

“Soul of who they once were dies.” Rey finished the General’s words in defeat. “I know.”

General Organa nodded solemnly when she assumed Rey conceded much like she had ten years ago. But the new found knowledge of the scavenger being visited by her son restored a hope in her that she thought was long dead.

Ben was named after her only hope after all.

The last Princess of Alderaan stood up from her seat and stepped around her desk; she stopped before the scavenger who looked up at her with eyes that told Leia so much without words. A story of loneliness that just began to write a new saga of uncertainty and adventure. Having seen once again her father’s lightsaber on the hip of another promising young Force user.  
“My dear, from what you have told me, and seeing the old relic on your hip, it has been made clear to me what the Force believes you should do.”

General Organa held out her hand to Rey who took it and stood up from her own chair. The old Rebel placed her hands on the scavenger’s shoulders and gave her a gentle squeeze.

“Come with me. We need to go and wake up Artoo. I think it’s about time someone pays my brother Luke a visit.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dont be afraid to Kudo and comment.


	20. The Scavenger's Wager

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Talyc Wager by Combat whether or not he will go with her to find Luke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posting chapter a few hours early. I will be returning back to work on June 8th. I will do my best to post on schedule. I'm ahead a few chapters so I'll have work to type but writing time may be cut down due to my work schedule.
> 
> I'll do my best. You all are amazing especially those who like and comment. I like hearing your opinions.
> 
> Translation notes at the bottom.

Leia and Rey strolled through the base as the sun began to set beyond the horizon. Most of the Resistance had returned to their barracks seeking relaxation for the day in their bunks, or congregating for games and discussing strategies to fight against the First Order more effectively. The only ones who remained out and about as the day ended were those who were prepping to leave on covert missions in the Outer Rim to recruit more fighters.

The Resistance General led the scavenger to a large one story building at the base’s center, urging her to enter the facility with a wave of her hand after typing in a entry code on a data pad attached to the door before it slid open.

“This place is the command center, but it also acts as a storage facility for some classified items.”

“But I thought we were looking for your friend Artoo.”

“He’s among the classified, now c’mon.” Leia answered Rey in a polite yet still authoritative voice as the later entered the command center.

The single room command center was dark with the exception of the light blue glow of the large round holo table that sat in the middle of the open area. There was an entire wall dedicated to communication tech behind the holo table, the other walls and corners of the room were littered with old devices, tools, and, in the last place Rey observed, an old pre Clone War Era astromech droid. The poor thing was covered in a thick layer of dust and cobwebs as it stood on its wheeled legs, motionless and dark.

The Resistance General lowered herself so she was eye level with the droid by squatting, and tenderly wiping away the webbing and dust that coated her old friend with a gentle hand.

“This old brat has been in the family for generations. Rey, this is Artoo,” Leia told her young companion while looking up at the scavenger from her lowered stance.

After pressing a button on the front panel and flipping a switch in the back, the black square panel began to blink with a color changing circle before what Rey assumed was his head rotated from side to side as if looking around the room. Not long after, the astromech started to whirr and bleep groggily. 

“You’ve been asleep a long time, old friend.”

_Beep beep beep! Whirrrr!_

“Not exactly,” Leia answered the droid, “But times have changed and I think Luke is due for some much needed company.”

_Whoooo!_

R2-D2 swerved his head all the way around. Leia stood up and stepped back giving the short droid some space to move about in what looked to Rey like a dance around the two women. The scavenger giggled over how vibrant R2-D2’s personality was after being powered down for so long. The astromech droid stopped and seemed to stare at the unfamiliar face. Rey lowered her hand and ran her fingertips on his head to assure him she was a friend.

“Lively one, isn’t he?” Rey marveled with a broad smile.

“He’s definitely the more colorful one of the two. Between him and Threepio, that is. Now, Rey, R2-D2 has the coordinates to Luke’s whereabouts. My brother entered them before his exile in the event that Han or myself ever forgave him. But given the circumstances, I’m willing to make an exception. Rey, don’t let my decision be in vain.”

“I won’t, Leia. I’ll do my best.” Rey assured General Organa as she turned around to leave. “Come along, Artoo.” 

R2-D2 followed the scavenger beeping and whistling behind her as they began to exit the command center.

“And, Rey,” Leia called out softly to the scavenger. The young woman turned around to listen to the General from the open doorway. Her silhouette dark before the bursting colors of the setting sun. “I would like you to see to it that Talyc joins you. The Mandalorian could learn a thing or two from my brother about the Force. And Luke may gain something himself.” the General winked as she added the last words of her small speech. 

Rey nodded and smiled. She was going to march through the Resistance base, find Talyc Solus, and drag him by his armor if she had to.

“I’ll see to it, I won’t let you down!”

**

“No!”

“ _What!?_ ”

“I _won’t_ do it!”

Talyc stormed off, furious over the proposition the scavenger offered him.

_“Come with me to train with Luke.”_

The nerve of that desert flower!

Rey hurried after the angry Mandalorian as she implored him to reconsider.

“Talyc! Wait!” she called out when she caught up to his long stride, “Can you at least explain to me why not!?”

“I’d rather not!” Talyc spat out as he quickened his pace to the Mythosaur, only for Rey to sprint ahead of him and block his path in the dark woods barely lit by the floodlights from the base nearby. She stared at him with a fire so hot that the ice planet Hoth could turn into a tropical paradise.

“Oh no you don’t!” Rey badgered the Mandalorian further. She refused to take a simple no for an answer, she wanted reasons for his adamant rejection of the Jedi teachings and techniques. Even if she was suspicious of why, the scavenger wanted to hear it from his shielded lips. “since the moment I met you I have seen you display abilities unimaginable! And you told me ‘in time’ I would know and understand the power you have. _We_ have a chance to learn this together, and you wish to squander it over your dislike of the Jedi!?”

Talyc glared down at Rey, determination was beautiful on her, but he was stubborn as his parents and refused to relent.

“Not the Jetiise. Just Skywalker. I will not train under that hut’uun!”

“How dare you call him that!” Rey snapped back, her words leaving her mouth fast and frustrated as she stomped her foot while inching closer to the Mandalorian, lifting her head up to the emotionless mask that covered his face. “Skywalker is possibly the bravest man in the karking Galaxy! He defeated Darth Vader, and the Empire, is that a coward to you!?”

Talyc leaned down to the scavenger, the two adversaries were so close that Rey could almost see his brown eyes through the thick glass of his T-visor.

“Skywalker _murdered_ a member of his tribe. A youngling who was barely a man. Calling him a coward is a mercy.” The mandalorian’s voice came out in a low, dangerous growl before he walked around the scavenger and began to leave.

“Wait!”

Talyc stopped mid-step and turned to Rey. She drew his grandfather’s lightsaber and ignited its blue blade.

“What are you doing, Oya’ika?” The mandalorian’s voice was softer but still annoyed.

The scavenger twirled the saber in her hand and positioned herself in a basic fighting stance.

“How about this,” Rey chided as she narrowed her eyes smugly at the Mandalorian, “we settle this like true Mandalorian warriors and fight out our disagreement. I win, you come with me to train with Luke; you win, and you can go wherever the hell you please!”

Talyc took a few prowling steps towards the scavenger. Such a clever little thing, she would have been a stunning Mandalorian if they had met under different circumstances. Truth be told, he had hoped to find her on Jakku so he could offer her a new life and family, but the Force had other plans for them, and the Galaxy with it. Plans he had no desire to be a part of. And how Rey was trying to Force the Galaxy’s will on him was tiring and he was reaching his limit.

If she was going to insist on acting like a spoiled child, stars he was going to treat her like one!

Because he had been chasing her from planet to planet like some armored heartsick fool as the threads of fate had bound them together with knots unbreakable. 

That ends today!

Talyc tilted his head in an attempt to frustrate the scavenger while he taunted her, “If you insist, I’ll even give you the advantage and combat unarmed.” He agreed to the wager she offered, and readied himself with his own fighting stance and shouted loud into the woods, likely being heard by members of the Resistance who were still walking the base after dark. 

“Akaanir ni!”

With her own wordless battle cry Rey charged the Mandalorian with her lightsaber in hand. She barraged him with a series of calculated blows, all of them blocked with his beskar arm guards, showering the two of them with glowing sparks that scattered each time blue plasma met with black iron. Her last overhead swing was blocked by Talyc, who grabbed her wrist firmly in his gloved hand, the other arm wrapping around her waist as he pulled her close. 

He could feel her heartbeat race though the arteries in her wrist and hum behind her breast that made contact with his armored chest. She had been toying with him, and a dark part of himself was going to give her a taste of her own medicine. 

“What’s wrong,” the mandalorian’s voice came out more like a lustful purr than arrogant mid-battle banter; it surprised him, “afraid of a little iron?”

Rey answered his question with a swift knee to the groin that caused Talyc to stagger back a few steps as he bowled over on reflex. He thanked the Force, the Maker, and every star in the night sky that began to sparkle as they witnessed their duel for the armor he wore. He then regained his footing and waited for the scavengers next move.

She was the embodiment of grace as the two seasoned fighters circled about the open area in a dangerous dance of parries and blocks. Much to Rey’s chagrin, the Mandalorian had her matched blow for blow. Damn his lightsaber resistant iron! 

But R’iia rejoice, fighting him was exhilerating!

Talyc caught both her wrists in his gloved hands, with Rey’s weapon glowing above them held tight in her hand. The blade casting its blue light that allowed the mandalorian to watch the perplexed look on the scavenger’s face as she tried to keep her balance while he pushed her back against a nearby tree. He pressed his body, firm with muscle and steel, onto Rey’s to hold her in place as he egged her on further. He desired to see this woman at her fiercest.

“If you want this to be over, all you have to do is yield,” Talyc goaded in a crooning seductive voice that continued to appall him, but quickly turned into satisfaction as he felt her rage flare though her Force-signature. 

“Never!” the scavenger gritted her teeth as she struggled against the Mandalorian’s grip and her budding desires. What the kark was he doing!? And why was it working!? She regained her focus and closed her eyes, channeling the force to her forehead beading with sweat. Talyc was too distracted to figure out why she was calling the Force in such a way that it was too late when he realized her next plan of attack.

Rey of Jakku launched her head forward and, with the aid of the Force, gave Talyc a head butt so hard his ears started to ring under his helmet and he began to see white glitter obstruct his vision. The mandalorian released his grip on the scavenger’s wrists and she kicked his mid-section hard enough to push him away and readied her stance for another attack. He steadied himself and did the most bizarre thing Rey had ever seen someone do in a fight.

Talyc Solus began to laugh.

“Ner cyar’ika, mirsh’murcyur? Ni’m r’ijaat!” He chided in Mando’a. In the same voice that had ran a warm tremble through her insides throughout their fight.

Rey’s face grew hotter than she had ever felt it get back on Jakku. “Don’t say it that way!” she shouted as her face and neck turned red! “And don’t you call me that!” 

Dear maker this man was flirting with her, and she was struggling with the fact that she liked it.

The nerve!

The scavenger readied her plasma blade and charged the Mandalorian with all she had; but before she could strike Talyc held out his hand, and Rey was frozen in place by the Force. She growled as she struggled to move but no matter how hard she tried to break free, her body remained still.

Talyc stepped to the scavenger he held in place with the Force, until he stood inches away from her. He placed a gentle hand under her chin and lifted her head up so he could look into her burning amber eyes as she bared her teeth in frustration. Rey was admirable to say the least. She was losing yet she was still determined to find a means to win.

He was grateful to be wearing his mask, otherwise he would have undoubtedly kissed those sweet lips that were filled with venom. 

A poison only for him to imbibe.

“Do you see now, Oya’ika? Do you understand why I refused to go along with you?”

“I see it but I believe you to be wrong!” Rey gritted her teeth as she spoke.

“Right or wrong is not what was discussed and fought over. You lost, sweetheart.” Talyc rubbed his thumb on her cheek and pushed back her loose hair behind her ear, “but before this beautiful fight is over you need to understand, training with Skywalker will only leave you unbalanced.”

Rey furrowed her brow but remained silent and furious over her impending defeat, Talyc sauntered around her, stopping behind the scavenger before he leaned down to her and whispered a command she could not refuse to obey.

“Sleep.”

The world grew dark around Rey of Jakku as her body fell limp and she dropped right into the Mndalorian’s arms in an unconscious heap. The last image she saw was the stars above her that bore witness to their skirmish and gave the scavenger no consolation over her loss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jettise - Jedi
> 
> Hut'uun - coward
> 
> Akaanir ni - fight me!
> 
> Ner cyar’ika, mirsh’murcyur? Ni’m r’ijaat! - "My darling, a brain-kiss? I'm honored!" mirsh’murcyur is a play on the word mirshmure'cya which means head butt ( lit. brain kiss) but he says murcyur (a more intimate version of the word kiss)


	21. A Mother's Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talyc is stopped by Leia who wished to speak with him before he leaves D'Qar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 3000+ hits! I'm still humbled by how many people have at least stopped to check out this idea. Thank you for sticking with me!
> 
> Translation notes at the bottom.

Rey was surprisingly light in Talyc’s arms as he walked through the now empty Resistance base. The sun had already slipped away behind the mountainous horizon and the moon took its place in the night sky among countless sparkling stars above.

Upon remembering the visions that revealed the scavenger’s life of hardships and hunger, the mandalorian held her closer to his chest. Regret washed over him like a downpour over how crass his actions were. The shameless words that left his lips to goad her on into a frenzy. How her Force-signature seemed to throb every time he pushed himself into her in a way that shocked and intrigued him.

Their passions were getting the best of them.

The mandalorian shook his head, trying to shoo off the runaway thoughts he had of the woman he carried and focused on finding Chewbacca. Talyc was going to give Rey to the Wookiee and then he was going to leave. He believe he had overstayed his welcome and it was time to return to his clan. He had already risked so much in the past few days.

The armored bounty hunter reached the Millennium Falcon and crossed the threshold into the rundown Corellian Freighter; carrying the woman who had reached out beyond the stars to hold his hand like the bride she deserved to be someday.

But Talyc believed he could never be her groom. Ben was her prince that she clearly adored and longed for, and he was sentenced to what, in the moment, felt like a lifetime imprisonment behind a cell made of Beskar walls. 

The irony of it all! The fact that Rey asked the one she had grown to care for to seek out the very man who damned him in the first place! 

A fate, for ten years, he enjoyed. The life of a Mandalorian was liberating, they were a society of truly free peoples who lived outside both the Fallen Republic’s and the First Orders dominion. Not even the Empire could shackle the wild spirit of the Free Peoples of Mandalore, who willingly in a blaze of battle would rather die during the Great Mandalorian Purge than to bend the knee. Even after the purge the Mando continued to survive in the shadows, seeking solace in smaller groups, traveling like vagabonds throughout the Galaxy. 

Life was difficult, but it was fulfilling, more so than Talyc’s childhood on Chandrilla. Despite the wealth, technology and the very Galaxy within his fingertips, Ben was left troubled, unsatisfied and often alone.

How stupendous it was that a lone woman in white with eyes that glowed a rich amber behind luscious eyelashes could shake and crack the foundation that Talyc had taken ten years to rebuild after his betrayal at the mechanical hand of Luke Skywalker.

The scavenger was the reason he had to wash his hands of the Resistance and go home to his clan, Talyc’s birth family he could endure; Chewie knew his secret and promised to keep it so. And his mother did not seem to have any suspicions, and if she did, she was willing to let him go. That act alone gave the mandalorian the courage to be in Leia’s presence as the time they shared together was more than he could ever ask for after so many years apart.

But Rey of Jakku would be his downfall if he continued to remain so close to her.

After stepping up the gangplank and entering the Falcon hoping to find his uncle, but Talyc noticed right away the inside was quiet and empty, nothing but the ghost of past adventures remained in the belly of the interstellar bird of prey. So the mandalorian took Rey’s sleeping form to one of the empty cabins, every step though the ship a childhood memory. He entered the guest cabin he recalled always using as a youngling and gently lowered her on the bunk. In sleep the scavenger looked soft and beautiful. The mandalorian placed a sheet over her in case she became cold during the brisk night. 

When he lifted her hand to place it in a more comfortable position, he stopped. Talyc recalled the moment he held onto her hand after she appeared to him on the Mythosaur, and how he held it now caused his heart to race just the same. The mandalorian waved his free hand slowly and the cabin door slid shut without making a sound. He exhaled a quick breath as adrenaline flooded his blood over what he was about to do, and he removed his buy’ce with his free hand. 

So see her in person so close without the heavy tint of his visor was almost blinding in the dimly lit cabin. Talyc moved a lock of stray hair from her face and he pulled the hand of hers he held to his lips and kissed it. A heartfelt apology for his actions; both during the fight and what he was about to do, because the mandalorian knew leaving Rey would leave an empty space in her heart just as the mere thought was doing to him. The kiss was chaste but Talyc, Ben, poured his heart into how his lips graced her calloused and scarred fingers, hoping that Rey felt it wherever she ventured in the realm of dreams.

The mandalorian placed the scavenger’s hand over the sheet and replaced his helmet before he stood up and turned to leave the Falcon and head back to his ship. 

Talyc’s heart burned in the flames of remorse, but he knew this would not be good-bye; the mandalorian knew he would always have a chance to see Rey through the Force due to their miraculous bond.

What Talyc would never see or know was the tear that rolled down the sleeping scavenger’s cheek shortly after he exited the cabin.

**

The mandalorian hurried out of the ship and down the duristeel ramp of the Millennium Falcon in swift, quiet steps. He began to run up the gangplank of his Kom’rk-class fighter but was stopped by a soft, familiar voice that made his burning blood run cold in an instant.

“Leaving so soon, Bloody One?”

Talyc turned around to see his mother in the moonlight and he was marveled by how her own radiance seemed to outshine D’Qar’s two moons.

“The...The Resistance is no place for me, General.” Talyc stammered as he tried to feign his composure.

“And what about Rey? I am assuming you refused her offer?”

‘Sly politicians never change,’ Talyc thought silently, he should have known his mother had something to do with the scavenger’s proposition.

“Of course I did!” Talyc answered his mother as he stepped back down the ramp to meet her face to face, “I won’t be trained by a man who killed one of his padawans, culling the boy because he feared he couldn’t control him! Better yet, I’d refuse the help of any Jedi, or Sith, with my burden, for it is mine to tame and harness how I please. And I think I have managed just fine without a master!”

Leia stoically listened and agreed with the Mandalorian before her, her only reply being an understanding nod of her head.

“Is it my brother’s staunch position in regards to the Force's duality, or his past actions that deter you from going along with Rey?”

Talyc had talked himself into a check with his mother, Leia Organa-Solo always had an impressive way with words. It was why she fared so well as a senator during his childhood. He had to tread lightly, if he reacted to rash about his uncle’s crime, the mandalorian would risk revealing the secret he kept from his mother and the rest of the Galaxy.

“The assumed duality of the Force placed by those who barely understand it, that turns brothers and friends into enemies, is a cosmic joke.” Talyc’s voice was soft but retained as mush emotion as one who would scream those words into the night sky, “I refuse to be trained the ignorant teachings of the Jetiise!” He bluffed finally.

“You are not wrong to feel the way you do. But is your rejection of the Jedi Order due to their values or your peoples’?”

“I believe you already know the answer to that question, General.” Talyc answered as he turned around to run back to his ship.

“And I believe you _don’t_ know the story of Tarre Vizsla.”

The mandalorian stopped again and he knew his mother could feel his curiosity peak through the Force as he turned around.

“Who is...Tarre Vizsla?”

General Organa smirked at the young Mandalorian.

“Dear boy, you don’t know the story of Mandalore’s only known Jedi?”

Talyc was rendered speechless not only by his mother’s words but by the memory of the voice that spoke to him from the Force when his father died. It now made sense why the Force spoke to him in the Father Tongue.

And like a thick-headed brat Talyc had the audacity to talk back to him!

“He...was the first Mand’alor?”

“Yes and no,” Leia replied, “There were many Mand’alors before Tarre’s ascension. But he was the first to truly unite all the peoples of Mandalore, and the first of the great leaders to wield the Darksaber, which he forged himself during his training in the Jedi Order over a thousand years ago.” She informed the Mandalorian, pleasantly surprised that despite knowing plenty about Galactic and Mandalorian history, the poor lad was missing out on such a colorful part of his people’s legends. “You _do_ what the Mand’alor is?”

“I have recently heard about the title, yes.” Talyc looked around trying to avoid the question of how he learned about Tarre Vizsla and the Mand’alor. He felt the idea of an ancient Jedi Ghost coming to him seemed absurd. Even for his mother who was quite knowledgeable about the Force; for her father was the fallen Chosen One, and her twin the hero who brought him back to the Light.

His mother also mentioned the Darksaber, yet another familiar word from his unusual conversation with the Mandalorian Jedi. 

Talyc wanted to know why Din Djarin never told him about this part of Madalore’s history? Especially because he was the clan head of a tribe that had not one, but two, Force using warriors. It just did not make any sense! Why keep such secrets hidden?

“Now don’t look so discouraged,” General Organa consoled Talyc as she stepped closer to him.

“And how would you know what face I’m making?”

“I’m a Skywalker child, Bloody One. It’s in my nature to know what I don’t see.”

The prince in disguise wondered if his mother would ever cease to amaze him.

“And it seems to me, Mandalorian, that you could use a much needed history lesson.” Leia smiled and began to introduce Talyc to a part of Mandalorian history and culture that she hoped would allow him to embrace his connection to the Force as a gift rather than a burden.

“Over a thousand years ago, the Jedi Order had found and trained a young Mandalorian. He was a formidable knight, undoubtedly due to his combat heavy heritage. Tarre Vizsla was a Jedi who left quite the mark on the Order’s history. Not only because of how rare it was that a Mandalorian used the Force, but also in the unique lightsaber he created.”

“The Dha’kad,” Talyc breathed out causing the Resistance General to raise an eyebrow and a smirk returned to her lip.

“Yes. For a Jedi, or a Sith, when one crafts their lightsaber, the blade is the soul of the Force-user who builds it. So of course a unique Jedi managed to forge an even more unique lightsaber. None like it were crafted before, and certainly there hasn’t been another like it since.

“And unlike most Jedi who devote their entire lives to the ways of the Light and the Temple, Tarre did as a true Mandalorian would. He returned home to Mandalore, and in time, was deemed the Mand’alor of the entire planet by his people.

“Upon his death, the Jedi came and retrieved the Dha’kad, as you called it. For some years the legendary blade was kept at the Jedi Temple in Coruscant to remind the Jedi of the legend that was the first Mandalorian Jedi Master. That was until Tarre’s descendants raided the temple and brought back the mythical weapon back to the Mandalore, bringing the blade where they believed it belonged. 

“From then on, many had the Darksaber in their grasps, but never for long. Most who had the glory of wielding the Darksaber died in battle not long after for many believed whoever held the Darksaber was deemed the Mand’alor. And it was not until Mand’alor Bo-Katan Kryze; who was given the sword and the title years after her sister, the Duchess Satine, was murdered during the Clone Wars, that the lightsaber remained in the hands of one master until it disappeared into antiquity once more. As if searching for the next true leader of leaders to emerge.”

Talyc processed the story he just heard and looked up at the stars. It was only expected of a Mandalorian Jedi to create something that reflected the spirit of his people, and that a millennium from his death it was regarded as a symbol of the Mandalorian bond still. A part of him that he always repressed saw the similarity between the Vizsla and Skywalker legacies, even down to the symbolic nature of the originators’ lightsabers. 

But unlike his family, who, regrettably, pushed Ben away out of fear; the ghost of Tarre Vizsla himself encouraged Talyc with nothing but pride. Or so it seemed.

_”You are Mando, with or without your armor!”_

Those words in the Father Tongue would never leave Talyc. The Jedi came to him caring not of his connection to the Force but _him_ as a person desperately seeking belonging. And they were now what continued to guide his decision.

“I’m sorry, General, but what you just told me only further cements my refusal.”

Leia pursed her lips into a thin frown. Talyc could not for the life of him understand why she felt training with Luke was so important.

“I will state my case one last time.” The General sighed, “I need you to go with Rey. I lost my son in the Great Yesterday, and I buried my husband today. There is something about the girl that _feels_ like my son, just as you do. I know no matter what _you_ will be ok. But I dread we may very well lose Rey tomorrow. And there is only so much this old woman can take anymore. I can’t watch planets turn to dust and continue to stand tall like I once had.”

Leia, mother of the lost Prince of Alderaan, took Talyc’s armored hands in both of hers.

“Don’t make this widow beg.”

The manalorian looked down at his hands that were now cradled in his mother’s. The same way she held his hands before she let him go, and Luke took him away. Suddenly he was ten years old all over again, reliving the memory of the day he was sent to the Jedi Temple. Remembering the fear of the unknown and the large hot tears that fell down his face. But also the spontaneous feeling that somewhere far away a great light was born into the Galaxy and he heard an old voice, nothing like the dark whispers that frightened him.

This voice was kind, soft, a woman’s.

_“Welcome to the world, Stardust. We’ve been waiting for you.”_

Talyc knew back then the voice was not speaking to him, but he could not help smiling and being filled with light when he looked at his young mother’s face. Assuring her he would be brave and make the best of his training.

That was the last time Talyc saw his mother until recent events threw him back into his parents’ lives. The Force had played his part in weaving the threads of fate so that the mandalorian and the General were back where they began on their separate journeys; with the mother holding her son’s hands, asking him to be brave again, and go to his uncle who had nothing but good intentions.

This time would be different. The sweet loving voice from far away was gone, but the light from that day was closer to Talyc than he believed possible.

This time Talyc, unlike Ben, was not alone in his journey. He had Rey.

The mandalorian sighed and conceded his position to not accompany the scavenger on her voyage. It would be _their_ voyage from now on.

“I’ll do it. But I make no promises to train under that old fool.”

Leia rubbed the hands she held with her thumbs tenderly as she laughed, a small chiming sound full of hope. “You don’t have to train, just ensure Rey’s safety. She doesn’t see it yet, but the Light and the Dark both pull at her, much like it did with my Ben.” The old Rebel looked up at the Mandalorian, her brown eyes were soulful and Talyc believed that somehow she could see his face behind his armor.

“Keep her safe, Bloody One.”

“Gar ganar ner miit, bintar sa jag bal Mando.” Talyc swore to his mother a promise he would willingly die in order to keep. 

“And the terms of your payment?”

Talyc looked down at the hands that held his own, remembering with a deep fondness the time he was able to share with her like this and the fact that he would cherish these moments until he drew his last breath. There was nothing like the present, it always seemed to show him recently that it is never too late. That people can always change and redeem themselves.

Maybe he would someday die with a smile on his face, just like his father before him.

“There are no terms, General. The debt has been paid.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gar ganar ner miit, bintar sa jag bal Mando - "You have my word, as both a man and Mandalorian"


	22. Flowers and Leaves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> General Hux as a meeting with Snoke and decides to take the biggest risk of his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posting today because I go back to work tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Armitage Hux was a man of cold indifference and apathy. A man desensitized by the abusive nature of his father and the grueling training he endured by the First Order. 

That was until a voice called out into the radio waves of the Galaxy and was received by his improvised comlink, an old pieced together hunk of junk he built with the intent to weed out Resistance transmissions and gather information for the First Order. A most endearing voice, one that enamored him and sprouted the seeds of emotions the General believed were long dead in the barren dirt of his heart. Murdered by his years of watching civilizations burn to cinders and decades of beatings at the hands of his Commandant father. 

That night five years ago sparked an unlikely relationship that the First Order General began to look forward to every day before he retired to sleep. The conversations were short and often sterile, but as months bled into years; the voice on the other end, the voice of the Arkanian’s dearest flower, softened along with his and the two allies developed a secret comradery he cherished deeply.

It was no wonder when she revealed to him the destruction of her colony and that she and her sister had joined the Resistance, that the shock of his friend’s alignment and past provoked the typically poised man to break down and confess his sins. That he was part of the ruling faction, admitting that he had a role in the death of her family. But instead of ending their contact, shunning Amitage, and demanding vengeance in the form of his blood; she asked him a single question that shook the foundations of the General’s loyalties. 

_“Why?”_

_“Why what, Darling?”_

_“Why did you enlist in the First Order?”_

For the first time in Hux’s life he thought about why hand how he came to be in his predicament. In this truly thoughtful recollection of his life, the general realized that he was trapped by familial obligations to enlist, lest he shame his ‘father’s good name’. And for his entire career, Armitage believed that the First Order and the Empire before that was erected to ensure stability in the maddening expanses of the Galaxy everyone resided in. That if the rules in place were not followed, punishments to retain that stability were dealt.

That was when the Flower Queen, as she called herself, explained the nature of the destruction of her colony and her family was due to a weapon’s test after resources were depleted, and the people no longer of value.

Maker be damned and the First Order with it! How many more lives were they toying with!? The regime was not present to stabilize chaos, they were the very agents of it!

Immediately after that conversation Hux agreed to source his flower with information to prevent further senseless deaths at the hands of the regime of which he was a part. It was then he looked in the mirror and thought of the changing leaves of trees during the fall of Arkanis, how his hair matched the color of the foliage that descended from their homes among gnarled branches, just has he was falling blissfully away from the grasp of the First Orders warped sense of duty; and gave himself the moniker Autumn Leaves. 

But he did it not for the Resistance’s victory, nor for the defeat of the First Order. Armitage Hux supplied information for the one person he was truly loyal to, who saw his sins and reached out with understanding and compassion. Everything he did was for his Queen of the Flowers, the kind voice from beyond the stars that made his heart skip a beat every time he heard it.

The First Order General’s secret alliance was one among many reasons why he dreaded his meeting with Supreme Leader Snoke. He cleared his head of any deceiving thoughts as he marched down the bright sterile hallway. His back straight and his stride gallant despite his blackened eyes and nose, now yellowing as the bruises he gained from Jakku healed at an ugly grueling pace. Hux stopped at the large black door that was emblazoned with the First Order’s sixteen pointed star.

The redhead took a deep stabilizing breath and reminded himself that the debriefing will end. And everything that occurs beyond the shining black door during those life draining conferences would also.

With a hand placed against the lock panel on the left wall, the massive door slid open and General Hux entered the dark room that felt more like a cave. It was empty and surrounded by thick cables and wires, with the towering hologram of the First Order’s Supreme Leader standing at the center like a ghost. Snoke was a wretched sight to behold. Tall, gangly, and withered like a piece of rotten meat, a husk of a human being. The man was practically a walking corpse. Beneath the shimmering gold thread and silk robes dulled to the holograms pale blue was a deformed monstrosity of a man, with long gnarled fingers connected to hands that were horribly scarred and mutilated from past battles.

No matter how many times the General had gazed at the blue hologram of the Supreme Leader, Hux always felt the electricity of fear pulse through his body at the initial sight of the scarred over gore that was a horrifying imitation of a human face.

“Supreme Leader.”

“General Hux. It has come to my attention that your retrieval of the Stormtrooper FN-2187 and your station at Starkiller base have both ended in failure.” A low rumbling voice spoke from the hologram that hovered over the General.

“With all due respect, Sir, there are logical explaina-”

“Silence!”

The redhead was rendered silent by the command. He steadied his quickening breath, the General knew what was coming to him.

“You insolent dummard! You have managed to fail me not _once_ , but _twice_ in less than standard week! I ought to see to it that Phasma throws you out of the nearest airlock and be finally rid of you!”

Snoke’s hologram limped around the First Order General like a buzzard circling over a helpless dying animal as Hux tried to plea his case.

“With all due respect, Supreme Leader. There were confounding variables that were out of my control,” The redhead tried to explain himself his face growing more pale as the interrogation continued.

It was then when invisible hands grabbed the General and hoisted him into the air like a doll, launching him into the thick unforgiving duristeel walls back and forth before slamming him back to the ground flat on his face.

“How is _that_ for ‘out of your control’, General!? And as I have been informed by Ren, you ordered him to send out two of his knights to ‘take out the Mandalorian’! Two valuable soldiers of the First Order are now dead! Deaths that were _entirely_ under _your_ control!”

General Hux contained a wince that tried to escape him as he struggled to breathe, certain that the collision with the walls at unknown speeds had no doubt broken a rib or two. It was not the first time, nor would it be the last. No matter what silent god Armitage prayed to, it was never the last, and after a while he stopped his offerings and reluctantly accepted his fate.

With a loose wave of a decrepit holographic hand, General Hux was lifted back to his feet like a tooka doll. Carried out with a gentleness that made his stomach want to lurch bile and acid up his throat. His typically pristine hair disheveled and his broken nose bleeding again after his punishment.

“Just look at yourself! Shameful! Pathetic! A living disgrace to your father’s good name!”

Hux lowered his green eyes and swallowed hard, avoiding the ice blue stare of the giant hologram.

“A _failure_!”

The General closed his eyes, holding back the tears of anger, nothing made his blood run hotter than being labeled a failure. His whole life until recently had revolved around doing everything in his power to avoid that insult at all costs.

“Dear boy,” Snoke purred in a voice that was like nails rattling against rusted metal, grating the Generals nerves in a sickening manner, “don’t be so angry. _You_ can remedy this.”

Hux remained silent, ever listening to his superior.

“Before Starkiller’s destruction, there was an explosion that rippled though the Force. It had been nearly a decade since the last time I felt power that strong. Not since we lost Young Solo.”

When the First Order General was younger, and more ambitious, he had heard about the Supreme Leader’s plot to manipulate and turn Force-sensitives to the Dark side of the Force. Rumor had been spread throughout certain levels of command that the Supreme Leader’s focus was to turn none other than Senator Organa’s son. Everything had gone according to plan until the plot was abandoned. Information was later declassified that Leia’s son had been murdered by his master and uncle, Luke Skywalker.

“See to it that the source of that power is found and bring them to me.” Snoke’s voice cajoled though the dark room, “do this and I just may overlook your recent follies.”

“Thank you for your grace, your excellency,” Hux feigned gratitude using the most sincere voice he could speak with.

Snoke waved a hand, shrugging off his lower subject’s praise as if the words were sweat flies he was trying to shoo away.

“This meeting is adjourned. Now get out of here and clean yourself up. You look revolting in the shoddy state you’re in.”

“Yes, your Excellence.” Armitage answered the Supreme Leader’s hologram before he saluted his superior and turned heel to exit the room. He felt as if every time he entered the cold dark hell that was the conference room a piece of his soul remained stuck behind each time he would leave.

These meetings always reminded the General that he was merely a living tool to accomplish the requests of the First Order’s bidding, he had earned the moniker Rabid Cur during his tenure due to his unrelenting loyalty and fury. But the ridicule and physical abuse he endured at the hands of Snoke was evidence that he was seen as nothing more than a toy soldier by the disfigured monster.

The longer this dehumanizing game continued, with the aid of his precious Flower’s guidance, Hux realized how desperate he was growing to free himself of the heavy black chains that shackled him to the First Order. 

The Fist Order General marched through the Finalizer’s long empty hallways, waving off occasional inquiries and salutes absentmindedly. Some officers noticed his bloodied nose and simply looked away and avoided him. They knew what he had been through minutes before, and left him to go where he pleased. He wanted nothing more than to enter his quarters, the only destination on his ship where he was allotted a shred of privacy.

Hux’s mind was blank as he reached the door to his private sanctuary. Typing in his code so the door would slide open to grant him entry. His only focus being a voice with no face as he removed his jacket, placing it neatly on a hook attached to the duristeel panel wall by the door. Armitage then turned to the antique chest at the foot of his large bed. The only object in the room made from organic matter. Inside that Arkanian cedar chest; however, contained an item man made of his own engineering. Hux stepped with light looting to the chest and knelt down to open the large trinket box with an old iron skeleton key he pulled out of the breast pocket of his button down shirt, once a solid slate gray, now streaked and splattered with crimson. With the turn of the key, there was a familiar click as the chest was unlocked and the First Order General opened the chest revealing a self-made comlink.

The device was crude in appearance due to Armitage’s novice skills of machinery but every odd piece had an intended purpose, from the gaudy heat sinks to the encryption devices and scramblers that looked like archaic bullet shells screwed into wires and circuit boards. Hux leaned into the chest to flip a switch and the device began to hum quietly as it warmed up. He pulled out an audio speaker that was small enough to place into his ear and a small handheld microphone. He turned the dial to the right frequency, a number he never uttered from his lips but would remember until his last dying breaths as a rambling old man.

That is if he lived that long. And given the nature of what he was doing, he expected to meet his demise during the prime of his youth.

“This is Autumn Leaves. Flower Queen, please respond.”

After a moment of silence the static of an incoming transmission crackled into his ear piece. 

“This is Flower Queen. Autumn, you sound terrible.”

“Not as terrible as I look, let me assure you,” the redhead snarked in jest with a smirk. His eyes now dark again with fresh bruises after his face collided with the floor during his meeting with Snoke. He was so desperate to hear the Flower Queen’s voice that he neglected to wipe the fresh blood that began to dry on his nose, chin, and neck. First that damn table the Mandalorian smashed him into on Jakku, and now the duristeel walls and floor at the hands of the Supreme Leader, Hux wondered if his nose would ever be the same.

“What happened,” the sweet voice of his Flower asked in his ear. How he longed to feel the air that left her lungs trickle along his skin when she spoke.

“I had a meeting with my superior about recent events. Let’s just say the solutions to my mistakes were tossed around a bit.”

One of the traits Armitage loved about their conversations was the Flower Queen’s gift of catching his subtle hints.

“Stars! What is wrong with your leadership!?”

Hux chuckled to himself. Here he was being pitied by his presumed enemy, his siren whose voice was the only thing in his life that kept him going.

When did his life become so bizarre?

“My dear, I’m growing worried,” the First Order officer’s voice was low and resonated with dread. “Punishment for failure is something I can endure. But if we’re caught, my sentence for treason is death.”

“Listen, if you need to back out-” Flower Queen began before she was cut off right away.

“No, it’s not that.”

“Then what is it?”

Armitage thought he was having a heart attack. He felt his blood pounding in his ears as he tried to steady his shaking hand that held his com mic by clasping it inside his other hand.

“Meet me at Canto Bight.”

“What!?” The Flower squawked into his earpiece, provoking a hearty laugh from the red head general. One loud and boisterous enough that Hux stifled it with a hand over his mouth.

“You heard what I said. Canto Bight holds regular masquerades when arms dealers congregate to ensure anonymity. Meet me there.”

“But...Why?”

He had hoped his lovely queen would had simply agreed, but alas, obedience and complacency were not the reasons why Hux had fallen for his flower. The pale red head leaned his back into his wooden chest and swallowed his pride along with the lump in his throat, speaking into existence his confession to the voice on the other end of the comlink.

“Because I’d rather risk death every time we talk than live without hearing your voice. And I want to at least die knowing what it would be like to hear your voice in person. Please, love,” The First Order General pleaded with the Resistance member across the Galaxy, “I need to see you.”

Silence echoed in Hux’s earpiece for what seemed like a lifetime. This was it, the Flower Queen will likely suspect his wanting to see her as a trap and cut ties altogether. But before the First Order General could concede and recant his offer, the voice Armitage Hux had fallen in love with answered.

“When will I see you?”

The General’s green eyes lit up for the first time in years! He pulled out his ear pieces and placed the mic down to run to his desk. Picking up the data pad that lay there so he could return to his comlink as quick as he could. After he replaced his earpiece and held his mic in his hand, Hux typed with his free hand dexterously on the data pad as he balanced it on his lap in front of bent knees. 

“Let’s see….Ah! It says here in my calendar that the next masquerade is in eight weeks from tomorrow.”

“And how will I find you?”

Maker, he had not thought this plan out that far! Hux was so worried over whether or not the Flower Queen would even consider his proposition, everything after the initial request was blank in his mind.

“Hmm,” the red head hummed to himself as he thought over how the two of them could make this secret rendezvous work, “It is a masquerade after all- I’ve got it! We can use our code names to create our masks!”

“Oh! Like leaves and flower petals!?”

Hux smile as the warmth, once feared but now welcomed, flooded his chest.

“Precisely,” he answered his Queen.

“Well it’s a date then! Canto Bight!, Eight standard weeks from tomorrow!”

“Of course, my Queen.”

“Autumn, please be safe out there,” the Flower Queen implored, her voice so soft and kind her worries were well hidden away. 

“I will, darling, and you as well.”

“Always,” she paused for a moment, “should we agree to radio silence until our meeting?”

Hux exhaled, as much as he wanted to assure her that they could still keep contact until the masquerade, he knew his Queen of the Flowers was right. This marvelous woman was always a few steps ahead of him. 

“Yes, I believe that may be the best option we have right now.”

“Alright,” The first Order General could tell his flower was discouraged about the decision, but the logic was sound and she believed in logic above all else. It was something they always agreed on. What she said next took him by surprise and he thought for one moment she had stolen his breath through the comlink.

“Before we cut the feed, just know that I’m going to miss you.”

“And I you, love, Autumn Leaves out.”

**

“This is Flower Queen, signing off.” 

Rose Tico switched her com link off. She sat alone in her quarters, the only light in the room glowing from an old lamp at her desk. Casting long dim shadows on the empty walls. Her heart beat was quick as a wild doe on the run as the realization dawned on her that she and Autumn had just arranged to meet in person. The typical worries plagued the Resistance mechanic. 

What if this was a trap? What would the Resistance think of all this? Would Autumn have second thoughts about their relationship? Could this even be called a relationship!? Stars, what was she going to wear!?

Eight weeks from the next standard day. Rose had plenty of time to figure out a plan to make the endeavor work, but she would have to get started right away. She dug around her desk, opening small drawers and flipping through papers until she found a small notebook. It was a small flimsiplast book with a modest wire binding, with a gilded pattern of stars on a navy blue background. The edges were worn from age but not from use. Rose could never bring herself to fill the blank pages of the journal her mother gave her as a parting gift when she and Paige ran off to join the Resistance.

Call it the Force, call it determination, call it love, but something in Rose Tico’s heart told her it was time to finally fill the empty pages of her past with plans and sketches of the future.

The Resistance mechanic grabbed the graphite pen from her desk and opened the notebook to fervently scribble down the blueprint of the most difficult mission she would undertake.


	23. Pilgrimage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey sees both the light and dark that resides in Talyc.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my goodness 150 kudos!? You all are too kind! 
> 
> Work is good (if anyone is wondering), I'm back in an area where if I do have downtime I'm still able to write ahead. And our company has been noted to have world class safety protocols to prevent people from getting sick. 
> 
> Kudo, comment, subscribe and share. :)
> 
> Translation notes are at the bottom.

When Rey woke up the next morning, she scrambled out of bed, frantic over how she ended up in one of the Millennium Falcon’s cabins. The last thing she remembered was Talyc waving a gloved hand and after that the darkness of sleep.

It was a deep slumber, one that was not interrupted by nightmares of ships leaving her behind. Or desert nights hearing the screams of unspeakable horrors that occurred when the self-presumed strong forced themselves on the weak, and scorching hot days when she scavenger was so exhausted she could only lay about in her AT-AT naked and hungry. The only dreams she did have were those of her hand held within another and blissfully floating in the familiar blue light that protected her from Darkness on Starkiller.

The very same light that belonged to Talyc.

Ben’s Light.

Rey closed her fists over the linen sheets that were now wrinkled in a heap on the bed beside her. She sat on the edge of the thin mattress thinking over the duel between her and the Mandalorian the night before. The way his breastplate reflected the blue light of the lightsaber every time he blocked her blow for blow with his armored forearms. The moments he held her in place during their power struggles as if trying to lead her in a wild chaotic waltz, recalling how her heart raced erratically in those moments. The way he called her cyar’ika and how he referred to her head butt as a ‘brain kiss’ of all things, he has deliberately used the romantic Mandalorian word for kiss in that statement. She would be a liar if she denied the flush of excitement over his remarks.

The scavenger’s neck and face grew hot, Ben seemed so timid, almost shy, but when he wore his Mandalorian armor he was passionate and honest about his feelings. At least she thought so, the whole unusual relationship they shared was starting to drive her mad.

Maybe it was for the best that she lost. Maybe Rey could possibly let this disaster go now that Talyc was leaving to seek out his own path. 

The scavenger shook the thoughts away for the time being and stood from her bunk to leave the cabin. So she could say her good-byes and head out on her new journey.

**

With provisions packed and ready to be loaded onto the Millennium Falcon in large crates, Rey and Chewbacca discussed how to input the coordinates from R2-D2 into the old Corellian Freighter’s navicomp.

“Are you sure, Chewie? It seems it may be dangerous for Artoo.” Rey stated, the methods Chewbacca suggested were increasingly risky for the old astromech droid.

“The R2 unit has been through worse, trust me,” the Wookiee howled his answer in Shyriiwook.

“I get that, but you also told me that there’s already a droid’s mainframe and AI inside the Falcon. Is that going to cause dissonance between them if we directly connect Artoo to the ship’s computer?” The scavenger furrowed her brow at the Wookiee, the droid’s safety was her number one priority. He belonged to Leia after all.

“There’s three actually,” Rey heard a low voice from behind her in common, “and honestly I’m not sure about the ship handling a fourth droid brain arguing inside the main computer. I think three is enough”

“Wait- _What_!?”

Rey knew that voice immediately and she refused to turn around for fear that she would crumble to pieces knowing that man who spoke from behind her was not going to accompany her on this adventure.

“That droid’s an antique, you know. A noted veteran of two wars. Ask the Wookiee if you don’t believe me.” Talyc informed the scavenger as he walked towards the arguing duo. “And to be frank, I wouldn’t plug him into that flying pile of garbage.”

“Garbage!?” Rey shouted.

“Pile!?” Chewbacca growled in confusion, as clearly the Corellian Freighter was infamously known as the fastest hunk of junk in the Galaxy. Pile of garbage simply did not have that cheeky flow.

“Look,” Talyc looked at his uncle and the woman he agreed to keep safe on this mission, “it’s just safer to plug the R2 unit into a less... _crowded_ computer. We can use my ship; besides, it’s exhausting piloting this beast by myself.” He nodded towards his ship as he crossed his arms. The offer was now on the table all they had to was agree.

Rey lowered her eyes and her lips turned to a frown, “But I lost our duel.”

“And I changed my mind. I’m going with you.”

Upon hearing the joyous news, Rey shot Talyc through the heart with a smile that seemed to ignite the world around her. The mandalorian turned away and gestured the scavenger and the Wookiee to follow his lead to the Mythosaur.

“Don’t get your hopes up, Oya’ika, training with Skywalker is out of the question!”

The scavenger cared not about whether or not Talyc would train beside her. She merely found bliss in knowing he would be close to her. After the fight and her slumber, Rey could not help but feel as if a missing piece of her heart was finally finding its way home.

She wondered if this was what hope felt like.

**

Two days.

It had been two days since the Mythosaur left D’Qar. Chewbacca and Talyc worked together to pilot the Kom’rk- class fighter when the beast was not coursing through the various hyperlanes on the way to the coordinates R2-D2 had contained in his memory banks. Coordinates that would lead the trio to somewhere in the Unknown Regions of the Galaxy. This left time for Rey to explore the unique vessel, adorned with it’s peculiar paintings and writings she could not decipher. Wandering the ship’s long hallway after the galley, Rey returned to the cabins. 

There were four cabins in total, and they were quite spacious behind the modest doors that secured them. Talyc had explained that the ship was meant to keep a troop of twenty-four soldiers. But seeing as his clan was only made up of three people, he took out the extra bunks to lighten the ships weight and accommodate his clan as best as he could when they joined him.

The first room was hers, the second, Chewbacca’s, the third room was open, and the last room at the end of the hallway; the one occupied by Talyc, seemed to call to Rey with a silent siren song. Her scavenger instincts kicked in and she began to sneak to the door, her curiosity overriding her better judgment as she ran her fingers across the smooth surface of the door emblazoned with more unreadable lines and triangles that were beautifully brushed onto the door with black enamel. Quite possibly the same substance that coated the Mandalorian’s beskar’gam.

Without warning the door panel slid open and hid inside the wall. Rey looked into the cabin and was unimpressed with how modest the master of the Mythosaur’s lodging was. As if the Prince behind the Mandalorian Armor was deliberately starving himself of luxuries he once was used to long ago. The scavenger noted how the room had only a bunk and a desk with another door on the opposite side of the bed, most likely a closet for clothes. 

Nothing had caught her interests in the room except for the scrolls of vellum parchment on the desk along with the canvas full of small pockets that contained many writing utensils and a small glass vial that she assumed was filled with some sort of ink, but it was the long black and yellow feather from an unknown creature that truly caught her attention and lured the scavenger further into the room. She tip-toed to the desk, overcome with a feeling of calm as she touched the yellowing paper. Rey did not realized organic writing parchments still existed given how those lucky enough to know how to write used datapads and flimsiplast. Rey grazed her fingertips along the soft edge of the feather and marveled at the solid gold tip at the end. 

She picked up the feather, not quite understanding what it was for until the Force showed her a vision of an unarmored hand holding it with a light touch on the parchment, the gold tip dancing along the paper in long swirling strokes, creating beautiful drawings of symbols and letters.

“It’s called a quill.”

Rey jumped upon hearing the voice she recognized as Talyc, dropping the large feather. The ‘quill’ as the Mandalorian called it was drifting to the ground before halting to a stop in mid air. The feather began to float about the room before making its way into Talyc’s gloved hand; he held it with the softest touch, like it was the most precious of trinkets. Rey’s eyes had managed to follow the feather’s flight to the Mandalorian to see him standing in the open doorway to his cabin.

“Listen,” Rey stuttered with embarrassment coloring her face. “I-I didn’t mean to-”

“It’s fine,” Talyc interrupted in a low soft voice that caused Rey’s stomach to flip. “It’s natural for a hunter to be curious. That’s why there’s nothing of value in this room.” He stepped to his desk, stopping beside the scavenger as he gently placed the quill back in its rightful place.

“These aren’t valuable to you?” Rey asked, turning to the Mandalorian. The space between them was small and closing that distance was tempting to the scavenger, but she remained where she stood. Hoping Talyc was not perceptive to her budding wants.

Talyc turned to the woman who had slowly maneuvered her way into his heart like a thief in that night. Praying to the Force she did not notice the trembling of his hand that wanted to reach out to her. So he clenched his hand into a fist to steady his nerves.

“To me, yes, their value is immeasurable. To thieves and scavengers, no. These are merely trinkets of a lost time.”

“From before.” Rey interjected causing the Mandalorian to turn away from her.

“Yes.” Was all that Talyc could manage to say.

“Could you ever forgive Luke for what he did?”

“No.”

“Surely he must feel awful about this. After what Leia had told me- Maybe if you were to talk to him-”

“I said _No_!” Talyc growled and turned to Rey, stomping a step forward so that he was dangerously close to the scavenger. She noticed how the air around her quaked with something terrible and dark, how the pens, parchment, and his quill shook with the vibration of the air turning malicious. The vial of ink clinked as it rattled slightly on the desk as well. 

The Mandalorian’s Force-signature was contained, but the rage that tried to escape its chains struck fear into Rey’s heart and all that she could see and feel within him was vermillion. As soon as the violent pulse surged through the room, Rey felt through the Force that Talyc had become aware of his growing actions. And just as suddenly as it began she felt that foreboding power ebb away and the scavenger was relieved to see the evil red aura leave him and disappear, only for his blue radiance to return to him. Exhaling a breath she held onto out of fear Rey placed a hand to her chest as if she needed to shield herself.

The armored prince lowered his head in shame and turned away to leave his cabin.

“I’m terribly sorry,” Talyc’s voice was low and shaking with regret. “You didn’t deserve that.”

“No, the fault is mine. I shouldn’t have pressured you.”

Talyc held onto the door frame and squeezed the hard steel as tight as he could. How could she blame herself? The scavenger was only trying to understand and help. Her intentions were pure.

“Family is one of the six tenants of the Resol’nare.” Talyc began to explain. Feeling like the trust he hoped to earn with her was dying in his arms. “And though a part of me would love to show my family the man I have become. _I can’t_. I accepted this the moment my blood hit the sand. And you should accept it now.”

Rey remained silent and chose to listen rather than speak. 

The Mandalorian turned to look at her standing in his room. The only person in the Galaxy alive that knew both sides of him. He admired her strength and resolve. And he feared that he may have just thrown it all away because he could not keep his emotions under control.

“Ures beskar’gam ger Ru’kel su cuyir a Mando be ijaat.” 

With those words, Talyc left the cabin, leaving Rey alone to think about the importance of what he told her. Hoping she did not tear down the bridge they had both built to connect with one another.

**

After their tense conversation Rey decided to stay in her room for the rest of her waking hours, trying to figure out the man she had become so interested in as of late. Laying on the floor she thought about the prince who hid behind a beskar mask, but clung to his old life through calligraphy. The man whom without the armor he donned, seemed starved for a caring touch. The warrior who fought his greatest battle against himself.

It had been long enough, the scavenger decided she was not going to hide from Talyc for the rest of this journey. But before Rey could stand up and exit her cabin, an unusual hum filled her ears to the point of dizziness. The scavenger held her head in her hands as she tried to stand up and step out of the room, only to fall back down to the floor as the sound she heard consumed all her senses.

And as suddenly as it began, the noise in her head stopped.

Rey lowered her hands as she crossed her legs to sit up, looking up to see the most awe-inspiring sight she had ever beheld.

There, floating a few feet in the air above her was Ben. No longer in his Mandalorian armor but wearing black trousers and a black long sleeve shirt. His legs were crossed as he sat in a meditative position with his hands on knees. He kept his eyes closed, his long dark lashes rested on his cheeks, and his mouth, made of full rosy lips, were straight and serene as he meditated in silence, allowing himself to let the Force flow through him like a human conduit.

Rey had never seen someone look so beautiful and divine in her life. She did not realize how intently she stared until Ben slowly opened his eyes and faint smile curled on his lips, causing his eyes to squint just enough that small lines forms along the corners.

In that moment a memory came to Rey’s mind of Han kneeling down and giving the same smile to a young child as he handed him a small gold trinket aboard the Millennium Falcon. A pair of gold chance cubes held together with a thin gold chain.

“You smile just like your father,” the scavenger complimented in a soft voice, growing nostalgic about a memory that was not her own.

Ben’s dark brown eyes captured Rey’s gaze, unfazed by her words as he was so entranced in his meditation. He recalled meditating with the child as a means of centering himself during the first few years of his new life as a mandalorian. How despite the fact that the voices had left, the anger and despondency struggled to remain close by to tempt him down the path of Darkness. But greeting the Force with Vod’ika and being baptized by the Light the small creature poured into the Galaxy like a bright beacon of hope was more than enough to reassure Ben that as Talyc he was no longer trapped by bloodlines and legacies, he was free to be no one and simply live. 

Ben never thought in his life that while doing so he would transcend matter and materialize in another place before another person. And he wondered what the Force had planned for him in this strange hour.

“Would you like to join me?”

“How do I _do_ that?”

Ben patted his knees softly, in an attempt to tell Rey without words to assume the same position.

“Sit like this, relax your heart and mind, then allow the Force to flow around you and through you. Ask him to carry you, and she will.”

The scavenger closed her eyes as she mirrored her companion’s position. Taking a deep breath and allowing the Force to flow through her body. In a short time, the world around her seemed to disappear, and all Rey felt was the wax and wan of the currents of life and death, light and dark, being and not being. Before she realized what was happening Rey opened her eyes and saw that she was now face to face with Ben. The scavenger managed to remain calm as she glanced around her cabin, taking notice of various floating objects, mainly her ration packets that were haphazardly packed away in a sack before she embarked on the Mythosaur.

“It’s normal,” Ben’s low voice reassured, drawing Rey’s focus back to him. “The floating objects. It happens.”

Rey, still in a state of sublime serenity, allowed the Force to spread her spirit thin enough to feel as if she was becoming the Force itself.

“I didn’t know the Force could do this, or feel this way.”

Ben’s heart raced within his ribs, the scavenger was untrained yet with only mere instructions she managed to connect herself to the Force so deeply. She was able to achieve what many well trained Jedi of the past had struggled to attempt. He imagined the strides she would make when her training with Luke began, without fear of a disastrous ending. It would not happen, he would not allow it.

Rey’s light was boundless, the Darkness did not follow her like it did him; he did not see that which his mother saw in her. Even though he was free from its whispers, Ben always feared the beast that slumbered within the depths of his heart. 

“You’re afraid.”

Ben’s eyes met Rey’s, and obsidian called to amber with longing. With need.

“I am,” he admitted.

“Of what?”

“Myself.”

“That’s not your fear.” Rey tried to assure the lost Prince of Alderaan. “Your family placed that burden upon you.”

“ _Birth_ family,” Ben corrected Rey, desiring she know and understand the difference. Not only for him, but for herself. He felt and held compassion for her wishes to know who left her and where she came from, but felt that she should look ahead instead of behind her. And a small treacherous part of him hoped that he would be the one she saw when she finally did. 

“My found family travels the Galaxy without fear of who, or what, I may become.”

“Because they accept you for who you are.”

Ben shook his head. “Because they _know_ I would never hurt them.”

Rey looked on at the man before her, how his soul warred with itself, fearing what she believed was insignificant. There was no way Ben was capable of the atrocities his family had feared he would accomplish. And it dawned on her in that moment like the sun rising through the twilight, that no matter what she would do everything in her power to always be at his side.

“Rey,” the way Ben spoke her name caused the core of her being to tremble and somehow ache, “do you trust me?”

“Yes,” Rey answered, never more certain of anything else, “more than anyone.”

Ben slowly lifted his hand from his knee and held it out to the scavenger.

“Take my hand.”

Rey of Jakku reached out, the Force swirling around her again as her hand closed the gap between them, singing its song that only the two of them could hear.

The moment their hands touched, the Force revealed to the both of them a vision of Light and Dark coming together as one pure entity of Balance, but also the end of an era of separation, beautiful and brilliant the Force would celebrate her great reunion shining his expanding essence throughout the Galaxy in the greatest era of peace all life would ever see.

Ben and Rey gasped, the lapse in their concentration causing their hands to pull apart and severing the bond they shared. Rey fell down the air, landing on her bottom. Her ration packets rustling down to the floor around her shortly after. She heard the clash of small objects falling to the floor in the room down the hall and Chewie howling about in his native language.

“What the kriff is going on out there!? Y’all sound like a herd of wild banthas!”

Rey giggled to herself quietly until she heard the boisterous laughter of Ben down the hall, a sound brighter and more melodious than any aria she would ever hear. And she hoped that she would come to hear it more in the future. 

**

Talyc could not help but laugh as his uncle’s outburst. The light feeling in his chest after seeing the vision, with peace so great as that he hoped and prayed to the Maker that he would be around to welcome such glory. The mandalorian beamed over how the scavenger offered her trust so willingly. It was liberating. He felt as if he had sprouted wings and finally freed himself from the first cage of many.

How many more cages would the scavenger from Jakku, his huntress, would coax him out of before he no longer feared the monster sleeping within; obliterated by the shining light of the woman who took his hand when he reached out for hers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Ures beskar’gam ger Ru’kel su cuyir a Mando be ijaat.” - Without armor you would still be a mandalorian of honor.


	24. Breaking Bread

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talyc receives a com from Din Djarin. He offers Rey the chance to eat with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was so excited to see that there have been 4000 hits on this story. Your loyalty to reading this story helps to make working 55 hours a week in the middle of a pandemic more tolerable.
> 
> I apologize for posting a few hours late. I needed to spend some time with my family (I have a husband and a daughter).
> 
> Thank you all so much!!! I am very grateful!
> 
> I will be sharing this fic on Twitter. I share it on Tumblr but it seems to get lost in the barrage of wonderful stories that come out constantly in the Reylo tags.
> 
> Translation notes at the bottom.

The Resistance High Command had gathered in the control room at the Base on D’Qar. Circling the round table with General Organa at the head of the counsel. The air in the dark room , lit only by the holo maps projected at the center of the table, was thick with tension and uncertainty.

“What do you suppose we do, General?” Admiral Ackbar asked of his superior.

“According to our agents on the field, it’ll be a matter of time before the First Order locates our base here,” Leia announced to the rest of the High Command. “Fortunately not all of us are here. But we need to have a large scale conference, everyone in the Resistance should be in attendance to work out our next course of actions.”

“General, with all due respect, but _how_?” one of the older members from the Old Rebellion spoke up.

“Vice Admiral Holdo commed me two hours ago offering the Raddus as the location for this conference. The size of her flagship is more than large enough to accommodate the largest sects of the Resistance. Her fleet is also highly skilled in tactical defense.” General Organa glanced at the old man and grinned in an attempt to restore confidence in the High Command. “So there is no reason to worry, Resdox, we won’t endanger any civilians in the event of the unthinkable.” 

“The unthinkable, General?” Connix asked with her hands pressed on the table top as she leaned in closer to the rest of High Command.

Leia looked a the three officers around her, they were her closest confidants now that Han was gone. She sighed, she needed her husband now more than ever.

“Part of being a good leader and tactician is to be ready for the worst. While being on board the Raddus with Holdo’s fleet in the black, no planetary life will be endangered by our presence. We need to understand that if we’re found the results could he devastating for the Resistance.”

The rest of High Command were silent upon hearing the grim possibilities of their plan. Resdox and Connix lowered their heads while Ackbar continued to hold his high.

“General Organa is correct. To know the risks ensures our success. My intelligence teams states that Canto Bight is having one of their pedantic masquerades to cater to their arms dealers soon,” the Mon Calamary Admiral noted to his fellow officers. “Many officers and officials of the First Order typically attend these balls, meaning we could congregate on the Raddus while they’re distracted.”

The High Command looked to each other and nodded in agreement, the plan was almost fool proof. A simple in and out, and everyone could return to their posts at the more covert bases throughout the Outer Rim. The First Order would be none the wiser.

“Admiral Ackbar, any ideas about the date of this masquerade?” Resdox asked his old Comrade.

“The ball is to be held in fifty-one standard days from today.”

“Then it’s settled,” General Organa announced to High Command, “we will board the Raddus fifty days from now, and hold our conference the next day. From here on out we’ll be dedicating our time to ensure that everything goes according to plan. You’re all dismissed.”

**

Rey and Talyc were in the cockpit of the Mythosaur for the last few hours. Chewbacca suggested that Rey take the helm for a while as the Wookiee decided he was tired and wish to retire in his cabin. Talyc rolled his eyes and began to blush under his buy'ce when his uncle gave him a subtle wink of the eye before leaving to rest. The scavenger had noticed the fluctuation of the Mandalorian’s Force-signature but shrugged it off as nothing and began to inspect the controls. Only to realize that she could not read the strange symbols etched into the duristeel plates, but recognized that they matched the symbols that were painted throughout the ship’s walls.

Stars this was going to be a challenge.

It took some time, but the scavenger had caught on quickly to some of the writing on the control panels and figured out the proper control sequences throughout their journeythrough the black void of space. The mandalorian was impressed with her co-piloting skills despite never having sat in the MandaMotors vessel, and they sailed to vacuum smoothly in a comfortable silence for an unknown length of time.

“Talyc?”

“Rey?” Talyc mirrored her question.

“I have only recently noticed that the art throughout your ship is Mando'a script. Are all Mandalorian ships like yours?”

The mandalorian shook his head, “No, the calligraphy throughout the ship was something purely my own. It’s there to remind me.”

“Of what?”

“Who I want to be.”

Knowing that Ben was behind the mask; and learning about his fear of himself along with his deep love for his family, Rey began to understand his devotion to Han, Leia, and his clan. Yet it pained her to know that he felt he could never return to his mother and at least let her know. Especially knowing that, now that Han was dead, the Resistance General was alone.

Rey corrected her train of thought, it was not a belief, it was the truth. Talyc was right to tell her to accept it. Perhaps in time it would be easier for the scavenger. Until then Rey would just have to shift through her stubborn thoughts.

“Gar mirdir guuror ibac laubid. Gar mirshe kelir ash’amur karyc.”

Rey turned to Talyc, her mouth agape over his teasing comment. Who knew how long she had been brooding? Clearly long enough to bring attention to herself. The scavenger looked at the Mandalorian and felt the warmth of his Force-signature and she smiled at the thought that just because he wore a mask, he was not some heartless creature. Talyc Solus was no monster. He even had a sharp wit about him that was quite charming.

“I’m sorry,” Rey said looking away under long lashed, her amber eyes dull with regret over her past actions. “I’ve been so focused on who you used to be that I neglected to get to know the man who now sits beside me.”

Talyc was stunned, in his whole life no one had uttered those words in a way that caused him to actually believe their remorse; his parents, his uncle, his fellow trainees at the Jedi Temple. Yes, his parents were remorseful he had come to find out, but only when it was too late. But here, in this moment, Rey of Jakku’s words would forever be etched in his heart.

“I-”

The was cut off by the beeping alarm of the ship’s coms that indicated an incoming hail. Rey straightened her back and returned her focus to the transparisteel panels as Talyc flipped the switch and turned the dial to hear the incoming transmission.

“This is Din Djarin of the Razor Crest. Talyc, are you there?”

“This is Talyc of the Mythosaur. Bic cuyir at susulur gar jorad, Ori’vod.”

“Te adla slanar par Gar. We haven’t heard from you in a while. It’s good to know you’re alright.”

Talyc sighed as relief washed over him, he felt the same way about Djarin and Vod’ika.

“Life has been eventful recently.” The mandalorian said to his clan head before he turned to Rey, his Force-signature full of light. “It has been full of new friends and enemies alike.”

The one called Din Djarin laughed softly through the comlink. “This is expected. We are both hunter and prey after all.”

Talyc grew quiet before he ran his gloved hand across the green triangle on his buy’ce. His next question was quiet but full of emotion.

“And Vod’ika? How is he?”

“Nothing but trouble, like always. I think he misses you.”

Rey could feel a sudden sadness so strong that it forced the air from her lungs.

“I miss you both as well. I plan on coming home after all this,” Talyc turned to Rey, “there is someone I would like you to meet.”

The scavenger felt her heart begin to race and her thoughts had become unintelligible. She could feel how the way he looked at her behind beskar and glass was full of so many emotions; pride, admiration, _longing_.

“A foundling?”

“No,” there was a softness in the Mandalorian’s voice that made Rey felt as if she was about to float from her seat. “This is different.”

“I see,” Din’s end of the link was quiet for a moment, “Remember the Way of our tribe, Talyc.”

“Bic cuyir ner sol’yc bal kyr’yc mirshsur’gaan.”

“I would hate to see you dishonored.”

“You have nothing to fear.” Talyc lied. Thinking of Han Solo’s last moments on Starkiller base. The mandalorian was not ready to confess the sin that haunted him.

A loud crash emitted from the comlink that startled Rey, but left the Mandalorian unphased.

“I have to go, Talyc, your brother is doing what he does best,”

“You mean getting into everything?”

“This is the Way, Talyc.” Din said with a laugh.

“This is the Way,” Talyc replied.

Once Talyc spoke those final words the feed was cut and the front of the ship was silent again.

“Who is Din Djarin?” Rey asked in an attempt to break the thick, suffocating silence.

“He is my clan head, and the man who saved my life.”

Rey understood a little more why talyc chose to separate himself from Ben Solo. The conversation she overheard was warm and loving, possibly more so than interactions with his parents in the past.

Shame soon tried to drown her knowing that she almost took that away from him. The scavenger swore to herself that would no longer be an issue. But before Rey had a chance to speak, a loud rumble was heard from her stomach. Talyc pressed some buttons and pulled a lever to shift the Mythosaur into hyperdrive before placing the Kom’rk -class fighter on autopilot.

He stood from the pilot’s seat to walk to the co-pilot and offered his hand to help Rey up. He thought about how Rey’s determination with him was possibly due to what she lacked and wished she had. Talyc vowed that the scavenger would not be lonely any longer, not if he had anything to do about it.

He would be her family, if that was want she wanted.

“I’ll eat with you.”

“Talyc,” Rey’s brow furrowed as she tried to read the Mandalorian. “You don’t- You _can’t_ -”

“It’s alright, Oya’ika, I have an idea. But only if you promise me one thing.” Talyc raised a lone index finger to count the single request.

“Of course, what is it,” Rey agreed as she gazed into the T-visor.

“Don’t turn around.” Talyc requested the scavenger; smiling under his buy’ce at the way she quirked an eyebrow in confusion.

**

Talyc led Rey to the galley to gather some ration packets and took the scavenger to the carbonite chamber. He punched in the lock code on the data pad installed in the wall after entering the spacious room to prevent his uncle from bumbling in unannounced. He handed her three Mandalorian-made ration packets, and kept the last for himself. The mandalorian held the two water pouches in the crook of his arm as they found a spot on the floor to sit, back to back as Talyc instructed. 

He handed Rey one of the water pouches, “from here on out you can’t turn around. You are aware of what happens if you do.”

Though nothing dangerous would come of the scavenger seeing his face. One familiar and known since their unusual meetings through various distances. However the mental anguish could be devastating to her companion, and she obliged with a nod.

Talyc turned around and removed his buy’ce. He felt as if the tentacles of a rathtar were lashing his insides, he was so nervous. It had been ten years since he ate in the presence of someone else. Rey tried to focus on the rations in front of her and not the man who sat behind her. Her cheeks turned red when his back touched her own feeling the heat of his body through thick cloth and iron. To distract herself Rey fumbled with the first packet, pulling out a few pieces of dried meat and what looked like a stiff piece of flimsiplast, only it was see through like a cloudy piece of desert glass.

Mandalorian ration packs always had these odd cards, but never this transparent. The scavenger never understood and often threw them away. She did not know how to write anyhow.

“The ‘paper’ is actually haashun,” Talyc informed her as if he had overheard her thoughts.

Rey blinked rapidly upon grasping the Mandalorian's words. “Bread? This is bread!?”

Talyc laughed at her surprised reaction, “Add a few drops of water. You’ll see.”

“Alright, but why is it see through? I’ve always seen it as a opaque white.”

“That’s because it was made right.”

“By who?”

“By me.”

Rey did as her dinner partner had advised, marveling at how the once thin flimsiplast-like rectangle fluffed up into a small loaf of white bread. She took a bite and her eyes lite up over how delicious it was. It was undeniably better than polystarch!

“This is delicious! I can’t believe I have been throwing away perfectly good bread this whole time!”

Talyc paused, this was the first time he had offered the scavenger any food from his stores knowing that she had packed and stow away enough Resistance rations for feed a small army. “You’ve eaten Mandalorian rations before?”

“Every time I traded with them.” Rey said between bites of bread and dried meat. Taking a quick drink of water to calm the spicy burn that tingled her tongue and nose. She had forgotten how hot Mandalorian cuisine tended to be. 

“What made you choose to trade with my people?” Talyc asked from behind the scavenger as he prepared his own rations.

“When I was young, I would trade with them whenever I could. They made me feel _safe_.”

“Us ruthless vagabonds?” the mandalorian chuckled, Rey could practically hear the smile on his lips, which also brought a smile to her face.

“Yes! Unlike Unkar, I knew I could trust a Mando not to hurt me.” Talyc could hear her voice waver as she continued, “One had even offered to take me in as a foundling. Clearly I refused, but I’ll never forget the wild cat signet on their arm guard.” 

“You should have accepted the offer. Clan Eldar is made of good people that fought against the Empire during the Galactic Civil War. If you don’t mind me asking,” Talyc turned his head to glance at the woman behind him hoping she would not turn around, “why didn’t you?”

Talyc already knew the answer. It was why she was afraid to leave Jakku when she was captured by the Knight of Ren. Yet he tore apart his dried meat and placed a small piece in his mouth while he listened.

“I...was waiting for my parents to come back,” Rey replied as she wiped the coming tears from her eyes. But Talyc could feel her smile through the Force. “Part of me knew it was a hopeless dream, but I’m glad I stayed. Because someone _did_ come back for me.”

The mandalorian choked on the bite of haashun he was trying to swallow. His face and ears grew pink as he coughed the bread to the right part of his esophagus. And he praised the Maker for the scavenger kept her word and did not turn around, even if he was struggling to eat, and breathe. He managed to swallow his food and drank some water. Gulping in a deep breath before he made a great confession to the woman behind him.

“For years I had seen you on Jakku. In my visions during meditation and often in dreams. I saw and _felt_ how lonely you were, and I both admired and was pained by how stubborn your faith was. I had promised myself years ago that is I ever met you, I would offer you a place with my clan, my family.”

Rey took a large ripping bite of dried meat as her eyes welled up with tears again. She was forever grateful for these moments. Because if fate had not forced her to leave Jakku in the arms of the First Order, the scavenger would have turned down Talyc’s offer, just as she did with the other Mandalorian as a child. Yet here she was, breaking bread with a man who hid himself away for most of his life. A man who was more genuine when shielded in armor than when his flesh and bone within was exposed to the galaxy a lifetime ago.

The Force played such a strange game. And the two of them her favored pawns on the field.

They ate, Talked, and shared together without seeing each other face to face; locked away in their private haven. But it all came to an end when the alarms rang out and Chewbacca roared at the door as he knocked hard.

Talyc replaced his buy’ce with haste and stood up from the floor.

“What is it?” Rey questioned as she was still sitting on the floor of the chamber, picking up the refuse of her ration packets.

“We’ve reached the droid’s coordinates,” there was dread in the mandalorian’s voice as he spoke, “We’ve found Skywalker.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gar mirdir guuror ibac laubid. Gar mirshe kelir ash’amur karyc. - "You think like that long enough, your brain will die of exhaustion." (Lit. You think like that enough your brain will die tired)
> 
> Bic cuyir at susulur gar jorad, Ori’vod. - "It is good to hear your voice, Big Brother"
> 
> Te adla slanar par Gar - "The same goes for you."
> 
> Bic cuyir ner sol’yc bal kyr’yc mirshsur’gaan - "It is my first and last thought" (mirshur'gaan lit. means "brain picture")
> 
> haashun - a type of thin bread that reconstitutes when exposed to water. A common staple in Mandalorian ration packets. If expertly made, the bread is see through, hence the name "see bread"


	25. Luke

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey, Talyc, and Chewbacca find the last Jedi in the Galaxy. He is not what they expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The questions and comments about the last chapter gave me life! I'm so happy the scene in which they share a meal was so well received. It has a special place in my heart.
> 
> But alas we have reached the reunion between our armored titan and his uncle. 
> 
> Chapter is posted early because it's my anniversary with my husband this weekend! I will be moving to 1st shift at my job next week which means I will have a life meaning more writing in my free time.
> 
> Enjoy.

The Mythosaur entered the atmosphere and landed on a mossy patch of flat earth on an island that registered as the droid’s precise coordinates. Not long after Rey, Talyc, and Chewbacca walked out of the open hatch and down the ramp with R2-D2 rolling down not too far behind. The salty wet air stroked its invisible hand across the scavenger’s cheek and neck, rolling a slight chill throughout her body as she stood in awe.

Rey of Jakku never knew so much water could exist in one place. For beyond the island was nothing but an endless ocean. It was a beautiful sight, second only to the image of Ben solo hovering over her in meditation a few days prior.

“What is this place,” the scavenger gasped as the breeze blew her loose hair off of her shoulders.

“I’m not sure,” Talyc answered, the mandalorian was awestruck by the currents of the force that traveled through every stone and blade of grass. He felt as if he was standing at the birthplace of the Force itself. But with such captivation, came a resounding apprehension over why they had found such a magnificent planet. “But Skywalker is here.”

R2-D2 bleeped and whistled in excitement upon hearing his old companions name.

Rey turned to Talyc, “How do you know.”

The mandalorian looks to the west, towards the opposite end of the island.

“I can _feel_ it. Close your eyes, Oya’ika, and the light will show itself.”

The scavenge closed her eyes as instructed and cleared her head and through the world unseen, in the distance, a beacon of light began to illuminate the darkness behind her eyelids. Upon opening her eyes, Rey ran towards the direction of the light she saw and the feeling she felt.

To the opposite end of the island.

Talyc and Chewbacca shook their heads and followed after her at a quick pace. R2-D2 blaring beeps and whirs about staying behind, and mentioning something about how rolling his wheels through moss and mud were worse than traveling in sand.

Rey followed the light; as she drew closer to its source, the presence grew stronger, brighter, so much so that it was becoming overwhelming and her chest began to tighten. But she would not stop. Rey did not care if she left her companions behind, all that ran through her head was what Leia had told her about Ben And her desire for answers. How it was now the last Jedi’s duty to train Rey if the Resistance had any hope of seeing victory at the end of the war that had been tearing the Galaxy apart. As well as the secret that Rey had grown to desire to keep hidden; that Luke Skywalker created Talyc Solus. 

No wonder the Mandalorian with two souls was so adamant about not coming along. And she was still unsure as to why he agreed to go with her after their wager by combat.

Rey of the great desert stopped at a patch of wet stone, her feet sliding along the damp smooth stones; seeing a cloaked figure standing among the jagged rocks that formed the landscape. He was looking out at the overcast sky where small rays of the sun bled through thinner clouds. She made it, Rey had found the Light, and a few moments later Talyc and Chewie caught up from behind.

“You shouldn’t be here,” a gruff voice spoke from the cloaked figure who continued to observe the sky. 

“Well, we are. And we need you.” Called out in defiance of the mysterious figure that she already knew the identity of.

Rey pulled the Skywalker saber from her belt and held the silver hilt out to him. The Mandalorian and the Wookiee stood silent and pensive, waiting to witness the outcome. Talyc’s heart began to race in his ribs, the urge to either run away or fight began to burn under his skin until a large furry paw landed heavy on his black beskar pauldron. He turned to his uncle whose black eyes shined like that of a father who would protect their child with every ounce of strength he had. Talyc was both relieved and glad that Chewie figured out who he was and approached him with open arms on Starkiller.

The cloaked man turned around and with his hands; one being a mechanical prosthetic, the other flesh and bone, pulled back his hood. Revealing the bearded face of an old man with the brightest, softest blue eyes Rey had ever seen. Eyes there were once filled with the desire to explore the stars, now only juxtaposed to the heavy frown he wore on his lips.

“I believe this is yours.” Rey spoke, breaking the silence as she held the lightsaber to the last Jedi.

Luke Skywalker sauntered to the scavenger, his brown robes flowing with each step, painting the picture that he was the wisest of sages as he approached Rey of Jakku. He reached out with his robotic hand and grasped the Skywalker saber, his father’s original sword, pulling it close to inspect it like he was holding an old treasure from his past. He seemed to recall every detail and memory he had with the old weapon.

“No.”

And Luke Skywalker threw his first Jedi sword over the cliffs behind him! Rey’s jaw dropped and her mouth hung open. She tried to think of something, _anything_ , to say but words failed the scavenger. She could only stand there wide eyed that the Jedi master would just _throw it away_!

“Just go home, kid. I stopped being a teacher a long time ago.” The last Jedi resigned as he walked past Rey, passing the mandalorian and the wookie. Luke eyed Talyc for a moment that seemed to last too long for the mandalorian’s comfort.

“You don’t look at him,” Chewbacca snarled at his old comrade in Shyriiwook.

“Well, nice to see you too, old friend.” Luke shrugged at the Wookie.

Rey ran to the edge of the rocks, the lightsaber was no longer in sight. She sighed in shock and disappointment. Talyc felt the scavenger’s sinking resignation and hopelessness through her Force-signature, knowing how important this journey was for her. The mandalorian held out his hand, effortlessly calling to his grandfather’s blade with the aid of the Force. After a few quiet seconds the hilt flew through the air, straight as an Ewok’s arrow, finding its home in his armored hand.

Luke stopped and turned around, his cloak bristling in the wind as he stared at the Mandalorian, who used the Force too easily to be untrained. 

‘No,’ the old Jedi wondered, ‘it couldn’t be.’

“I said ‘go home’!” Luke shouted at the three uninvited guest.

“No!” Rey roared back with her teeth bared and a determined fire in her eyes that reflected the flares of her Force-signature. The long, thin fabric of her tunic and her hair flowed in the winds like the waves in the water far below them.

Luke blinked his blue eyes at the sheer audacity of the feral young woman before him. He looked at the Mandalorian and his old friend.

“Does she talk to _you_ this way?” the last Jedi addressed the Mandalorian who stood holding the legacy saber in his hand.

“Why do you think I’m here, Jetii?” Talyc’s words were like shards of glass on his tongue as he spat them out. Chewie nodded in agreement.

The old Jedi raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips as he turned away. He knew when to pick his battles, he learned that when he lost his hand back in Cloud City.

“Very well,” Luke sighed, “come with me.”

Rey caught up to the old man, and Talyc began to follow. He stops and faces his furry uncle.

“Go ahead. I'll catch up, Sprout.”

Talyc nodded to Chewbacca and ran ahead to follow the Scavenger and his former master.

**

Luke led his visitors to the stone ruins of what he called the First Jedi Temple. The ruins were beautiful in their ancient glory, and both Rey and Talyc looked around as the Force surrounded them with Light. Welcoming them like an old, dear friend.

Chewie, who caught up after a short while; however, was distracted by the small scurrying of blurry creatures hiding among the rubble and rocks. And soon disappeared from the group in his pursuits.

Talyc found the irony of the last Jedi’s exile in such a place amusing. That the legacy of the Jedi Order would end where it all began. 

“This place was chosen by the First Jedi due to the island’s deep connection with the Force. Though there are many Force Nexus throughout the Galaxy, this one was more tied to the Light at the time of the Temple’s erection.”

Luke spoke like an old sage with a slow droll. His voice being tuned out by the hymn of the Light that sang in the wind. Rey turned to see and feel Talyc’s Force-signature reverberate with the Light. Despite being in the presence of his uncle, and all that the old man symbolized to the lost prince, Rey had never felt Talyc seem so serene and at peace. She hoped to whatever merciful god could hear her prayer that such serenity would last.

“In my ongoing studies of the old Texts left here on the island, the Jedi believed that there once was a purely balanced being in tune with the Force, this one was known as the Jedi Prime. For reasons unknown, the being split into the two sides of the Force, the Light and the Dark. Good and Evil.”

“What makes you so sure the duality is so black and white?” Talyc questioned his former master and uncle in a surprisingly calm, quiet voice. It must have been the Force, Talyc felt as if he was meant to find this place, or return to it.

Rey looked at the Mandalorian wide eyed at how calm her companion was when he spoke and the audacity of his possible disrespect for speaking out of turn. But exhaled when Luke simply laughed a small chuckle.

“Well, tin can, what do _you_ supposed the Jedi Prime split into?” The old man looked at the armored warrior with a crooked grin and a gleam in his blue eyes.

“I believe- no, I _know_ , that the Force that surrounds us and through us is different than the Force that gifts us with visions and...other blessings,” The mandalorian turned his head to the scavenger, and Rey could feel his ebony eyes staring into her own behind his mask. “While we can manipulate one to help ourselves, the other is forever out of our control. Coming to us with riddles we have to solve. What I believe is that the duality is not Light and Dark, but rather Life and Death.”

“A truly fascinating interpretation. You’ve thought long and hard about this.” Luke smiled at the Mandalorian in a way that was loving, but remorseful. Tender, yet full of regret. He turned to Rey. “And you, youngling?”

“I don’t know,” Rey gave the last Skywalker an honest answer, “I have only learned about the Force and Jedi Less than a standard week ago. “

“To admit not knowing is a noble truth to tell,” the Jedi master said to the scavenger. There was a warmth to him, Rey felt like she had found a kindred spirit.

“Master Luke-”

“No.” Luke frowned and shook his head. “Don’t call me that.”

“Alright,” Rey conceded. But there was still something she yearned to know, “but why?”

“Why what?”  
“I need to hear your reasons behind killing Ben solo.”

Talyc froze where he stood as his blood ran cold As the winds of Hoth. He closed off his Force-signature behind his beskar’gam as he was about to hear his killer explain why. Luke heaved a sigh from deep within, lowering his eyes in shame, only to raise them again to look at Talyc. As if speaking directly to him.

“It was the only way to save him from becoming the Ruler of the Sky.” The Jedi’s voice quivered as he testified to the two visitors, his eyes never leaving the Mandalorian. “At least, that’s what I believed.”

Rey noticed the stare and continued her interrogation.

“So killing him was your solution?”

Luke Skywalker shook his head again and his lower lip puckered through his scruffy beard as he grimaced. “I admit, it was the greatest failure of my life. I allowed the Darkness to take control and that is why Leia exiled me. I sent away my students, shut down my Temple, and came here to atone for my mistakes. To find my balance again. But even then, my guilt will _never_ leave me! Every moment awake and asleep is haunted by the look of betrayal on my nephew’s face that day!”

Talyc felt the knot in his chest tighten, but he was determined to keep his composure. To know that Rey was standing up to Luke for his sake, risking her chance to train with the last Jedi in the process, stirred something in his heart for the girl. Talyc knew he had to keep calm, for the scavenger’s sake. 

Rey swallowed the lump in her throat before telling Luke in a low voice, “Han is dead.”

“What?” Luke whispered in a voice that sounded almost weak upon hearing the news of his best friend, and brother-in-law’s passing.

“The Resistance, and Leia, believes that you training me in the Force is the Galaxy’s last hope.” Reys eyes shined with tears as she began to relive Han Solo’s death in her heart and memory.

The last Jedi processed what he was told; how he lost his old friend forever, that his twin sister sent the girl to train under him regardless of her ten year grudge, and how the reborn Rebellion was in dire need of hope. He also mulled over the absurd odds that, of all the trillions of people and creatures in the entire Galaxy to land on his doorstep, a force-using Mandalorian had to be the one.

Han always complained about anyone telling him the odds. Yet the Jedi Master wondered if the old scoundrel would have _liked_ to know the odds of this exact moment happening.

“Kid,” Luke addressed the scavenger. “What’s your name?”

“Rey.”

Luke stared at the girl as if waiting for her to say more.

“Just Rey, of Jakku.”

“Well ‘Rey of Jakku’ I believe the last hope of the Galaxy is a heavy burden to bare on such small shoulders. The Rebellion did that with me, and look how that turned out.” The last Jedi said as he turned to Talyc with a forlorn gaze. “But I believe the Mandalorian may be able to help you carry that burden. I’ll only agree to teach you the ways of the Force if your bounty hunter friend will train beside you.” 

Luke hobbled about the temple around his two guests, “After all on this backwater rock, there are no droids, and a sparring partner is essential.” The old man rubbed his shoulder with a frown, “And I’m just too old to spar with such a spry, young apprentice.”

‘What a load of bantha shit!’ Talyc scowled behind his buy’ce at his uncle’s poor attempt to look feeble in his old age. The man was barely fifty standard years old for stars’ sake!

As if he heard the Mandalorian’s thoughts, Luke Skywalker smirked at Talyc and finally brought the coming question into the open air.

“So what do you say, shiny?”

Talyc glanced around the Jedi Temple; Chewbacca was no where to be seen, having chased after the small creatures that scuttled about the old stone structure. Rey was the only other person in the large empty space, begging him with her gemstone eyes to say ‘yes’. But try as he may, the mandalorian could not overlook what his uncle had done to him a decade ago, no matter how guilty the old Jedi felt about it.

“My name is Talyc Solus, and the answer is no.”

Luke Skywalker, the last Jedi in the entire Galaxy, shrugged his shoulders and clapped his hands together once in defeat, but he did not seem too upset about the loss. “Well it’s settled, kid. You’ll just have to go home.”  
“Wait!” Rey ordered Luke. The old man was blown away over how brazen she was. So much like a rebel of the old days this girl was. “Let me talk to him.” 

Rey hurried to Talyc who was storming away with long strides. She ran ahead of him and blocked his path, the same way she had on D'Qar. But unlike at the Resistance base, when she opened her mouth to speak and ask him to reconsider his decision, her voice was soft and humbled.

“Please, Talyc, we’re the Galaxy’s only chance. I know there’s a part of you that believes this to be true. That same part of you brought your fa- brought _Han_ back to Leia. That part of you also brought me here. I know you care about the Galaxy’s freedom as much as the Resistance does, because your people live by that as a guiding principle of your culture. And the Mandalorians will lose their very way of life if the First Order wins this war.”

Rey reached out and held Talyc’s hands in her own. “Your family may be purged again like they were during the Empire’s reign. So I’ll ask you, Talyc Solus of the Clan Din Djarin, help us please.”

The next words Rey uttered in a shaking whisper shook the foundations of Talyc’s heart and the Force showed an image of his mother in her youth say nearly the same thing.”

“You’re our only hope.”

The mandalorian clenched his jaw under his buy’ce and squeezed the scavenger’s hands tenderly as he offered her what he thought was a hopeful answer.

“Give me tonight to think about this and you’ll have your answer in the morning.” Talyc told Rey of Jakku before releasing his hands from hers and he turned to walk back to the Mythosaur to think heavily about the next choice he would make.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jetii - singular term for Jedi.
> 
> The Ruler of the Sky...I wonder who that could be. >:3
> 
> Prepare for some fluff as sweet as cotton candy next week ;)


	26. Memory and Contemplation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talyc and Rey connect through the Bond. The Mandalorian makes his final decision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prepare for fluff so sweet your blood sugar may spike.
> 
> Translation notes are at the bottom.

Talyc was laying down in his bunk, in his usual sleeping clothes of black trousers and his long sleeve undershirt. He rested his head on top of his palms as he stared at the blank duristeel ceiling above. After seeing his uncle Luke for the first time since the trauma of Mandalore, and hearing Rey’s demand for answers had been taxing on the mandalorian’s psyche. Talyc needed to surround himself with home and keep himself tethered to the Resol’nare that was written across the walls of his ship more than ever. Tenants expertly painted and accented with his own style of calligraphy that he developed when he taught himself to write the rune-like symbols of his beloved language.

Yet he still could not get the image of his uncle’s eyes, ice blue and full of grief, that stared at him as he spoke of the Ruler of the Sky. Talyc was unfamiliar with the title the old man referred to, but something deep in his heart knew it was the lingering Darkness that had began to devour him whole as he was coming of age at the Jedi Temple. Darkness that was now obliterated by iron and honor.

What truly struck Talyc was while Luke pleaded that he committed his greatest sin to save his nephew, he testified his regrets while staring at a stranger. 

Not Rey, the visitor who asked for answers, but him; the silent observer.

Luke Skywalker struck down Ben Solo on Mandalore. And now he asked the only known Force-wielding Mandalorian in the known Galaxy to train under him after being exiled and in hiding for ten years?

Talyc furrowed his brow and his soul was overwhelmed with anger and terror. He wanted to fight. He desired to run away. What if Skywalker intended to finish what he started? Why would he leave him for dead if he wanted Ben to survive?

Suddenly a memory flooded his mind. One long forgotten of a child’s dusty and bruised hands that held his own as he lay bloody and emotionally broken in Mandalore’s white sands. He could never see her face as his vision was fading, only hearing her voice as she promised one thing to him while he was slowly dying and the world faded into darkness for what he believed was forever.

_“Don’t worry, mista, I’ll stay with you. No one should ever die alone.”_

Tears slid down from the corners of Talyc’s eyes and rolled into his black hair. He clenched his jaw tight so he could to muffle the simper that tried to escape him. That was the last memory he had before waking up beside Vod’ika and Din, and was reborn a Mandalorian. His heart felt so heavy as he recalled the cloudy memory, he thought it would crush his spine into his cot. Why was he remembering such a memory all of a sudden?

He had no time to think about the reasons why the Force would have him remember such pain and compassion, as he began to feel the dizzying sensation he often felt when the Force was bridging his mind with Rey’s.

‘Haar’chak!’

**

Rey sat before a warm fire in the clay and stone hut that Luke offered her to stay in; insisting that she make herself comfortable and stay warm. He even offered her a set of gray and beige clothing that was thicker and coarser than her desert attire. His gifts were gladly obliged because the nights on Ahch-To, as the old man called the place, were damp and held a deep chill in the air.

_“It gets cold here on the count of all the rain. These’ll be warmer than your Tatooine attire.”_

_“Jakku.” The scavenger corseted the Jedi._

_“Really? Still seems like an awful place if you have to dress like that.”_

_“How would you know?”_

_“Desert planets are all the same, kid. The people who dwell on them are usually trapped and hate it. If their lucky, they escape. Those who stay remain because their souls died and withered away some time before.”_

Rey wanted to tell Luke that he was wrong. Not all desert planets were the same. What would Talyc think about the old man assuming the worst of his adopted planet? It seemed to her that Talyc liked Mandalore, but what person would dislike a planet that was home to millions, if not billions, of people that would greet their brothers in arms the same way they would joyously embrace a lost sibling or child, all because they were bound to each other in a way beyond blood?

So many quirks about the old Jedi seemed suspicious as the scavenger leaned back on the wall of the hut that sank in for a spot to lay a small mattress. Luke’s determination to train both of them or none, still irked and intrigued her. If he knew who Talyc was behind the mask, why would he wish to try to teach him again? The Jedi were strange! 

And who was the Ruler of the Sky?

There was no time to contemplate further. Rey began to feel the vibration of the Force pulling her and Ben together again.

Ben.

_Talyc._

The man with two souls.

A man at war with himself.

The scavenger of Jakku turned around to see the man she knew was laying down in her cot that was built into the wall, watching him as he stared at a ceiling that was not her own. She noticed the shimmer of shed tears that stained temples. And though she yearned to wipe them away, Rey chose not to ask why, because something in her heart already knew the reason behind his grief.

“You again,” Rey said in a soft, kind voice.

Ben continued to look up at the unknown ceiling.

“It’s quite the ultimatum my uncle has created for you.”

The scavenger turned her body around to rest her arms on the edge of the small bed that was barely long enough for her friend who occupied it.

Friend. Rey had made so many in the past week, but the man in front of her was growing to he her fondest. To be near him was a sensation she did not understand but thoroughly enjoyed. She wondered if the Mandalorian felt the same way about her. Ben seemed to hear her thoughts and he turned to face the scavenger. No words were spoken as the two looked into each others eyes. The firelight warped with the dance of its golden flames. Casting its uneven glow on their faces.

Rey broke the silence with a sigh of resignation.

“I understand your reservation.”

“Do you?” the lost prince answered.

“Well, no,” Rey gently dragged her fingernails across her hand to calm her nerves. “But he does seem remorseful.”

“It doesn’t erase what he did.”

“Hmm...true...” Rey agreed, staring at Ben with amber eyes that glittered the color of sparkling sandstone in the fire’s glow. The way she looked at the Mandalorian made his blood rush.

“I wish you could show me my place in all of this.”

“Sadly I have yet to figure out mine.” Ben rolled over on his side and laid his head in on his arms, his dark eyes reflected the warmth of the flames from deep black pools. “I’ve grown to realize I don’t know much about my people, and my willingness is great. But seeing as how the Galaxy is falling apart around me, I’m unable to expand my knowledge.”

The scavenger took a deep breath as if readying herself to ask a most difficult question. 

“I wish it was you.”

“What do you mean?”

“I wish _you_ could be my teacher.”

“You’re wrong. After everything… _happened_ , my use of the Force is different. I use it to survive by any means, or not at all. I don’t see it as an entity that lends me strength. It is only an extension of _my_ being. And unfortunately I don’t know how to teach that.” Ben rolled his eyes as a smirk curled on his pouting lips, “that and the Jedi ways are flawed and archaic.”

Rey rose an eyebrow and mirrored his smirk, “Oh? Care to explain?”

“Of course,” Ben’s smirk grew into a smile, revealing his white teeth behind his full lips. 

Oh, how the firelight in the room was beautiful in his presence. A secret Rey would keep hidden in her heart for years to come.

“The Jedi believe to become one with the Force, one must have to starve themselves of desires and attachments, yet, ironically, everything you do is for the sake of love. I have never believed for one moment of my life that was how the force worked.”

Rey’s face grew warm upon hearing Ben talk about love so openly, and every word he spoke after made her heart flutter.

“And how do _you_ believe the Force works?” The scavenger challenged the prince, the Mandalorian.

“As creatures born of the Force, the very essence of all things, to _live_ is to be one with the Force. We’re human, we have desires, we have wants, the only way the Force will frown upon you is in how you obtain those things. Such as theft or coercion.”

Ben Solo looked at Rey with hooded dark eyes full of the longing, and adrenaline burned through his blood, “You must receive those gifts with grace, and let go with acceptance that which does not belong to you.”

The words burrowed deep into Rey’s soul as she tried to comprehend the pang in his heart that she felt through the Force as he spoke to her. The way his ivory face basked in the golden light of the fire made him look ethereal in her eyes. A true vision of a noble man; who refused to take anything that was never offered to him freely with open arms, but would cherish like the most precious of treasures any grace that was bestowed. The scavenger wondered if Ben was always this way, or if the life of the Mandalorian taught him such virtues that were alien to the men of Jakku.

Rey reached out and held Ben’s face in her hand, he closed his eyes and she felt his Force-signature blossom with wanting as she ran her fingers through his black hair. It was thick like waves of a cosmos devoid of stars, the strands of the void were soft as the finest silks in between her rough, overworked fingers.

“I wish I could see you like this every day.” Rey spoke with shining eyes, she refused to let the selfish tears fall for it was unfair to the man before her to do so.

Ben could not find the words to answer her plea, he only stared into her eyes wanting nothing more in the Galaxy than to lean in and touch the lips of his damnation with his own.

“Why is the Force doing this to us.” Rey’s heart ached as she uttered those words in the hut, in his cabin, in their shared space held in the arms of the Force. 

The scavenger straightened her back and leaned in slow, unsure of what she was doing as she had become clouded by her instincts. Ben and Rey closed their eyes, and the Mandalorian leaned in with the gentle pull of her hand. The two had become one being in the Force as their lips came together; a kiss warm as a mild summer day, and soft as a gentle breeze. Rey felt as if her body had faded into the Light of the Force as Ben reached out and cradled her face in his hand. The Mandalorian felt as if his heart would stop and the Force would carry him away to the Vergence Scatter. He pondered if his life was just a cruel dream the whole time and he was still seconds away from death on Mandalore. 

Suddenly Talyc's hand and lips felt empty, when he opened his eyes Rey was gone, and he was once again alone in his cabin. He sat up and covered his mouth in his hand, the same one that grasped at the scavenger’s cheek just seconds before. Trying to comprehend what had just happened, and reveling in the joy that filled his heart and soul that something so blessed had occurred in his lonely life. 

With those thoughts came a revelation. 

How could he leave her?

Rey looked around her hut, disappointed that the bond was lost, but beholden that it had lasted long enough for such a splendid happening. She touched her lips with her fingertips, recalling the feel and taste of Ben, sweet with the lingering tingle of unknown spices as her head was swimming in endorphins at the memory of his soft lips on her own. The scavenger smiled bright as the fire before her, her shoulders were light and her heart overflowing as she had the fortune to experience something so intimate without insecurity, or fear.

That with Ben; the man who called himself Talyc, Rey of Jakku would always be safe.

**

Rey woke up in her small, surprisingly comfortable bed, the sky was overcast like the day before, but the sunlight illuminated the world around her in a soft, cool luminescence. The fire had died down to a few small embers that glowed a dull vermillion under layers of white ash. Its thin wisps of smoke floating up to the chimney spout at the center of the clay ceiling.

The scavenger sighed, knowing that the morning brought the Mandalorian’s final answer. But the memory of the previous night confirmed that what they felt for each other was more than a simple kinship. It was beyond mere attraction, and it was purer than desire. Whatever this swelling tickle in Rey’s chest was, she could not the words to describe it; they failed her.

It made the possibility of Talyc refusing to train and leaving all the more painful to bear. Rey was unsure if she could move on from being abandoned again. She had barely begun to recover from what her parents had done thirteen years ago.

Rey exhaled sharply through her nose and tied her hair in the single bun that pulled the hair from her forehead and temples. What would transpire next, the scavenger would accept and willingly let go. To honor Ben’s philosophy of the Force, a way she in turn felt connected to and would carry with her regardless of her future.

Rey left the hut and ran about the temple grounds until she found Luke looking out at the seemingly infinite sea. The wind tussled his wild graying hair and his brown robes, yet he stood still as a mountain. Unphased by the forces of nature around him. Once he felt that Rey’s presence was close enough he addressed her without turning around. His voice carried a subtle tone of amusement when he spoke.

“So, did you talk tin can into sticking around?”

“I haven’t, but, sir-”

“Don’t call me that,” Luke interrupted in a matter-of-fact tone that was almost humorous to the scavenger. But their conversation was no laughing matter.

“-Luke, is there any other way?”

“No Mandalorian. No training.” Rey could almost hear the smile that the Jedi master spoke through. Such a mischievous old man! 

“Te Jetii cuyir o’r jute’kara.”

Rey’s ears perked and her heart fluttered when she heard the deep timbre of the familiar language, only one man she knew could speak, from behind her. The scavenger and Skywalker turned around to find Talyc strolling up to them in slow, confident strides. The scavenger smiled brightly as she watched him stand tall and proud, his beskar breastplate shining dully in the dim daylight.

“I will accept your training,” Talyc told the old Jedi under the gray sky above. Rey shoulders rose with elation as her smile grew so that her white straight teeth peaked under her lips. Such a smile almost brought the Mandalorian to his knees. 

But he remained standing, remembering the other who stood with her. So Talyc stood his ground as he added, “And stop calling me ‘tin can’. My name is Talyc!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haar’chak - "damn it"
> 
> Te Jetii cuyir o’r jute’kara. - "the Jedi is in luck"


	27. Fear and Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hux has a few choice words with Captain Phasma. Talyc and Luke settle past grudges with lightsabers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone showed me how to look up subscribers earlier this week and my goodness I was surprised!
> 
> To the 130 of you who get emails each week, thank you for the dedication!
> 
> As always every one of you who takes time to read this each week and new readers who have just caught up. You are all amazing, I am pushing through the toughest chapters right now as best as I can as I write this. 
> 
> Translation notes at the bottom.

“Dopheld.”

Lieutenant Mitaka lifted his eyes from his datapad and saluted General Hux with a nod and a stammer, “Y-yes, General Hux?”

“No need for stuttering, Mitaka, I’m not my father. I need you to do some research for me.”

“Yes, sir, whatever you need.” Mitaka said awaiting his instruction.

Armitage pulled out his own datapad and typed on the touch screen the ‘subject’ of his inquiry. When he turned the datapad to his fellow officer and revealed the note on the glowing screen, the lieutenant squinted his brown eyes inquisitively.

_All archived files with information regarding Ben Solo._

“I’m confused, General,” Mitaka whispered to his superior officer about the request he was given. “The senator’s son? Hasn’t he been dead for a decade?”

“It seems the Supreme Leader believes he is very much alive.” Hux spoke through his teeth as he and the Lieutenant walked down the duristeel hallway of the Finalizer. The First Order General wished not to recall the Supreme Leader and any lingering aches and pains from his meeting with the withered old bastard. “And he expects _us_ to find him. But I need _you_ to handle this in the meantime. _I_ have some personal matters that need my attention.”

“And what matters would _that_ be, General?” A woman’s slightly modulated voice asked, strong, but cold as ice

The chill of Captain Phasma’s voice had cooled General Hux’s blood to sludge in his veins, that infernal woman was always suspicious of him after they plotted and followed through with his father’s murder years ago. Since then, Amitage had the lingering suspicion that he was next in line to perish suddenly of ‘unknown causes’. The First Order General feigned his usual pomp attitude and turned to face the woman armored from head to toe in shining chrome plated plastoid and bit back with a civility that barely masked his aggression.

“As I _just_ said, the matters are _mine_ to address. And everything within _my_ grasp, Captain, is _none of your concern_!”

The chrome armored trooper chortled and shook her head. Such a gentleman!

“I’ve killed _hundreds_ of men, General, least you could do is raise your voice to me like one!”

“Why don’t you _go_ somewhere and test someone else’s patience?!” Hux was beginning to lose his resolve.

“Because yours is so easy to shatter!” The Captain goaded in her usual matter-of-fact voice that drove the General to fury and annoyance. She was like a loth-cat playing with her prey. 

Armitage Hux had a reputation for losing his temper, and it was beginning to raise its ugly head in the form of the bulging vein on his temple and the blotchy red flares on his pale face. But no, he would not let Phasma get the better of him! Not until the masquerade a few weeks away.

“ _Well_ ,” Hux smiled and squinted his eyes, he was a snake among snakes, the Star Destroyers and First Order bases were his true battlefield in this war. A fact he had only begun to realize the more he spoke with his dear flower light years away. “Find another target, Phasma. I don’t have time for your games, what with my obligations to the Order and such.”

His voice oozed with poison and his green eyes were like jade daggers when he added, “Why don’t you make yourself useful and kill a few hundred more men!”

The General could feel the Captain’s rage roiling under her armor as he turned around and began to walk away with Lieutenant Mitaka. Small victories were sometimes the sweetest.

“I’m on to you, Hux. And when I figure you out, I’ll be sure to not listen when you beg me for mercy!”

“How unfortunate for you, Captain.” The First Order General began to quake with anger, just enough so that his voice was wavering ever so slightly, “I’m not one to beg!”

“We’ll see about that.” Phasma said her piece and marched away unphased and hard as stone.

When the Captain had marched far enough away and had turned out of sight down another hallway, Mitaka blew out the large breath he was holding. Hux rolled his eyes at the nervous Lieutenant and they continued their conversation where they left off.

**

Rey and Talyc had been training for a week on the island they had learned was on a planet known as Ahch-To. Their days routinely started with a light breakfast and a meditation session, then sparring and lunch. After that Luke would discuss the Force and the three would return to wind down with another round of meditation in the early evening before retiring to a meal and a long awaited bed. The days were uneventful but quite the learning experience, particularly whenever the two trainees would spar. 

Talyc would never use a lightsaber, preferring hand to hand combat and shielding himself with his armor that was resistant of the Jedi weapon’s plasma blade. Only implementing his use of the Force during combat through dodges and pushes. Sometimes even concentrating the Force around his hands or feet during a blow that would launch the scavenger a few feet away from the patch of moss where they held their sessions. 

Rather than allowing the Force to guide him as the Jedi Master regularly instructed, the Mandalorian continued to use of the celestial energy as a weapon itself. Despite Luke’s frustrations, Rey acknowledged that the method was quite successful in combat. The last Jedi; however, would scowl every time Talyc would use the Force in such a manner, subduing the scavenger with a sweep of his arm as she would throw herself into an attack, leaving her on her back breathless in the mossy dirt. Or simply halting the swing of her saber with an outstretched hand before pushing her back to the ground again.

That was not to say Rey never got her fair share of victories in their sessions. There was the time when the scavenger had utilized the Force Dash and rendered herself to a speeding blur around the Mandalorian before giving him a taste of his own medicine and kicking him hard enough with the aid of the Force to send him flying across the clearing and into the boulders a ways away. Much to Skywalker’s dismay. As well as when she became comfortable knowing the beskar plates of Talyc’s armor would protect him, using the Lightsaber like a bludgeoning weapon rather than a sword. Leaving the Mandalorian rattled and dazed inside his beskar fortress.

These moments left Luke holding his forehead in his palm and shaking his head. These two were too much like his father, Anakin Skywalker; cocky and undisciplined. But no doubt deeply connected to the Force and quite powerful.

Such power needed to be contained and managed appropriately.

“If you’re going to spar, shiny, at least use the proper forms of Jedi combat that I have displayed!” Luke frowned after Talyc had pulled himself with the Force across the earth under him and between the scavenger’s parted legs after Rey had swept him off his feet with a low kick under his knees, grabbing her ankles as he slid passed her to pull the scavenger down face first into the thick, spongy moss.

Rey pushed herself off of the ground chuckling at what has transpired as well as Luke’s grumpy words towards his nephew. Talyc sat up and turned to the old Jedi.

“I’m here to aid Oya’ika with her training. I’m not here to learn the seven forms.” The mandalorian squared his shoulders as he stood up before crossing his armored arms. The black enamel had been scorched away by the Lightsabers burning blade in various spots, revealing the bright, shining iron beneath. The man looked rugged and battle worn in the overcast daylight. 

“You should be, you have great promise, even of you don’t walk the Jedi path you should strengthen your bond with the Force through lightsaber techniques. But you really lack discipline.” The old Jedi unclipped the lightsaber from his belt and held it out to Talyc.

“I want you both to start again from the begging, but I want _you_ to use _this_.”

Talyc felt in his uncle’s Force-signature that, in the moment, the old man’s actions were a test. What he was trying to prove, the mandalorian was unsure. All Talyc knew was that he would rather kiss a rancor than hold the very blade that left the comet of scarred tissue across his chest ten years ago.

Luke’s blue eyes, bright as his father’s lightsaber blade, peered at the Mandalorian before him, “You fear it,” he whispered low enough for only the two men to hear, noting that Talyc seemed to hesitate too long, proving more the theory the old man had about the scavenger’s mysterious companion.

Rey yelped as the lightsaber in her hand was ripped away from her by invisible tendrils and Talyc caught the legacy saber in his hand, gripping it tight enough that the shining hilt trembled in his grasp before igniting the blade.

“Ni cuy’ Mando! Ni kar’taylir niyc chaabar!” Talyc bellowed in a war cry as he instinctively fell into Ataru formation and lunged for the attack. While Luke effortlessly defended himself by using the Soresu technique of Jedi Combat.

Rey gaped as she observed what; the scavenger believed, was one of the most fearful, yet stunning, fights she had ever witnessed. The two men were like master artisans, and each stroke of green and blue light moved so fast that their auras lingered despite the daylight around them like brushstrokes of an ethereal paint. The sparks that rained about as the plasma blades collided with each other singed the damp moss at their feet and created thin billows of smoke and steam when the small pieces of fire died on the ground. 

Though there was fury in Talyc’s movements, his Force-signature only displayed control and a desire to seek victory. His blows and parries reminded her of the vision she saw of his hands writing his calligraphy. Every stroke a deliberate action and expected result. The last Jedi; however, was entirely closed off to her and Rey was unable to read him as he expertly defended every swing of Talyc’s sword. The two warriors were the embodiment of discipline and strength. Masters of a dance meant for death and salvation; honor and preservation of the innocent, strife and peace. 

The sight continued to take the scavenger’s breath away, fearing that one would gravely injure the other. The Force crashing around the two men like the waves on the rocky shore below them at the base of the island.

Luke and Talyc seemed to be evenly matched. Much to his frustration and admiration, the mandalorian recalled how Ataru was created as a response to the lack of Soresu’s offensive capabilities in combat, but Luke’s defenses were nearly impenetrable. The mandalorian had to figure out another form to utilize or the two would continue until their charade ended in a stalemate of exhaustion.

The Force opened his mind’s eye to reveal a middle aged man with traditional Jedi robes of the old republic, with burnt sienna skin and not a single hair on his head, and eyes that were dark and serious, but also kind and benevolent. Wielding his violet lightsaber he spoke to a person unseen in the Force’s memory.

_“One must channel the Darkness of your opponent. Find within yourself the thrill of battle.”_

From beyond the Force Talyc heard those words and saw the Darnkess that swelled inside his former master; his guilt, his fear, his self-loathing and regrets. The darkest parts of his uncle’s heart were open to the mandalorian revealing his greatest sin; killing Talyc’s past. 

Talyc focused on that Darkness that swam beneath the surface of Luke’s Light as a target, channeling his own love for battle that he had developed in his new life and, in a cyclical vortex of the Force, Talyc propelled himself to unleash so many attacks that his swings began to look as if they came from an unknown number of arms. Luke was able to keep up, but in time the Jedi’s strategy to tire out the Mandalorian was beginning to backfire. 

Rey saw the eminent danger of the duel before her begin to unfold, and an image of the same man that the Force showed to Talyc came to her. His eyes were stern and his full lips were set in a frown as he spoke.

_“Vaapad is more than a fighting style...The penumbra of the Dark Side.”_

An image of the man sitting in a council meeting appeared to her as he spoke words that shook the foundations of the scavenger’s understanding of the Force and the Jedi.

_“We're keepers of peace, not soldiers.”_

The scavenger heard the words of the Jedi master of Old and saw the growing Darkness between the two duelists. It was clear to her that if neither of them were to yield, both master and apprentice would kill each other, fulfilling a dark prophecy in the air that lingered like the scent of death on a battlefield.

“Stop!”

Without hesitation Rey shouted as loud as she possibly could to end the fight, in doing so the Force was channeled through her voice and shook the air around her, causing a clap of thunder to rip through the island.

Talyc Solus and Luke Skywalker halted at her command in mid swing of their lightsabers. The blades of light stopped close enough to singe the clothing that covered their throats. The three Force-driven beings stood in a shaky silence for what seemed like years before Talyc extinguished his grandfather’s blade and dropped the silver hilt onto the ground.

“I have no fear. Only distain.” The mandalorian relented in a low growl, his body quivering with rage and exhaustion.

The last Jedi stared at the Mandalorian, his words bringing to light the hidden fear that had grown in Talyc since he first saw his uncle’s face on the island.

“For me? Or the sword?” The old man asked between deep breaths trying to convey that he was calm and collected. In truth the Jedi was anything but.

The air in Rey’s lungs seized in her chest as she blinked rapidly, astounded that Luke would ask such a personal question, but she remembered her own actions on D’Qar. It pained her to see Ben struggle through such a situation from an outside perspective. But, like he always had, Talyc stood his ground like his adopted Mandalorian ancestors.

“You must have me mistaken for one of the ghosts who haunt you, Skywalker.”

Luke straightened his back and tried to exude the proud front of a Jedi Master, but his Force-signature sighed in resignation and regret. Though his beloved nephew was alive, he felt as if he had lost him all over again. Talyc stormed off with long heavy steps to the nearby woods.

“Rey,” Luke called out to his student in a low voice, not turning around to look at her as he continued to speak. “If B- _Talyc_ chooses to leave. I will continue to train you. I'm sorry for what you have seen. It seems I keep failing as a teacher.”

The last Jedi's confession made Rey uneasy, so she did what she always had when it came to Talyc. The scavenger ran after the Mandalorian across the mossy landscape of the island; when she caught up with him she reached out and grasped his gloved hand in hers. His hand was still warm from the duel.

“Ben,” Rey whispered, “I don’t want you to go.” Her voice was soft and earnest, almost pleading, but understanding of whatever choice he would make.

“Oya’ika,” the armored prince turned his head to look over his shoulder and face her. He matched her volume and tone, the last thing he wanted to do was hurt her over his past grudge with his uncle. But a beast was pacing under Talyc’s skin, sinister and dark, and he needed to get away from everyone that could be decimated in its path if it became unleashed. “I’ll come back, but first you have to let me go.”

As difficult as it was for her to oblige the Mandalorian’s request, Rey slowly released her grip on her dear companion’s hand, their fingertips lingering in each others touch as long as they could before the contact was broke, and the scavenger did as he asked. She let him go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ni cuy’ Mando! Ni kar’taylir niyc chaabar! - I am Mandalorian! I know no fear!
> 
> Heads up next week's chapter will have content warnings for nudity and allusions to sexual assault. Our favorite characters will not be harmed in any way, it will be related to memories in the past. I'll make note of where the sensitive material is in the chapter when I post it next week.
> 
> Thank you again! Don't be afraid to kudo and comment.


	28. Desires and Barriers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Talyc express their wants, but at the price of being exposed to one another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to post this tomorrow. But I had the most craptacular day st work and decided to post early.
> 
> Things get a little steamy on Ahch-To.
> 
> There is a CW/TW for allusions to sexual assault during a flashback/memory in the chapter. The content that is of concern will be marked with ## and is a separate break in the paragraph structure. 
> 
> Please please PLEASE if any more of the scene is of concern DO NOT BE AFRAID to tell me. I have taken constructive criticism very well so far in this story and it has helped me greatly in the process of character development (EEOperator I'm pointing at you, you are amazing btw). And as a person who has experienced trauma, the last thing I want is to hurt any of you wonderful readers buy causing emotional discomfort.
> 
> Translation notes, as usual, are at the bottom.

Watching Talyc head to the woods worried the scavenger to no end, but it was not due to wildlife or nefarious humanoids. No, Rey’s fear stemmed from Ben being alone with his thoughts.

“Kid,” Luke approached his student, looking as worn as he felt from the lightsaber duel that had just taken place, “I think it’s best we call it a day.” The old Jedi gave a quick sweeping glance about the island as if skimming it with the Force to ensure the Mandalorian was not about to stumble into danger. Not that the armored warrior could not take care of himself should anything of that nature were to happen. Ahch-To was the birthplace of the Jedi, no darkness was welcome. Except...

“Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Chewie in a few days. You should search and make sure the porgs haven’t made a meal out of him.”

Rey turned to her teacher, confusion written on her face. What on the island could _eat_ Chewie? “I’m sorry. _Porgs_?”

“You’ll know when you see one.” the Jedi master drolled as he walked off in the opposite direction of the woods, leaving Rey alone to her own devices. She jogged to the legacy saber that lay on the spongy patch of moss and bent down to pick it up. The scavenger stared at the silver hilt and raised her eyes to see the Jedi Temple a ways away and the Force whispered that the Temple was where she needed to be, so rather than search for the missing Wookiee, Rey headed to the stone ruins in the distance.

**

In the woods full of thin, tall trees that climbed high into the air, Talyc stormed through like a beast on the hunt, trying to clear his head of the thoughts of anger that clouded his mind and heart in a black miasma. He could have killed his uncle, what would have happened if he had? Would he have attacked Rey as well? Would she have been able to subdue him? Could he have been able to live with such deplorable deeds if they would have been carried out? The mandalorian’s heart was pounding, his body shaking uncontrollably as he tried to allow the world around him to soothe his burning fury.

Luke’s voice cut through Talyc’s thoughts like a wavering echo.

_“You need to control your anger, kid.”_

“Vabir nayc jorea’ir at ni, Jetii!” Talyc cried out into the quiet forest like a mad man. He knew his uncle was no where to be seen, but he could not help but search around for the old man.

_“Your use of the Force is going to get you killed or worse if you don’t try to harness it differently!”_

“I said leave me _ALONE_!”

With a sweep of his arm across the air and an explosion of the Force, there was a loud racket of snapping and cracking and Talyc looked on in disgust upon what he saw. The mandalorian gazed at the shards of wood scattering around him. The trunks of the trees before him no longer led to the towering canopy, but stood as short and jagged stumps. The branches strewn about in a mess of foliage and timber. His rage did this, just as it had numerous times before when he was an adolescent years ago, long before Mandalore. Bile crept up his throat and his stomach sank like a stone in the ocean000000.

Talyc stumbled around the woods with his hands over his buy’ce as his heart pounded in his head. Shame and regret began to drown him. He was allowing his negative emotions get the better of him again. The troubled mandalorian thought he had moved on from this struggle. Talyc continued to stagger around aimlessly until he felt what seemed like the spirit of the island embrace him in warm arms and tried to ease his unsteady heart. The mandalorian lowered his hands and glanced up to see a lake reflecting the sunlight above, surrounded by trees and tall boulders. The surface was so smooth it looked like a large looking glass set in the earth. The water was still and crystal clear, revealing the rocks and small fish swimming beneath the water’s surface.

This body of water felt like a holy place to the mandalorian, blessed by the Jedi of generations past. Talyc stepped to the shore of the lake and knelt down, his knees setting on the lush, green grass that grew to the very edge of the water. He stared down at his reflection, a fearless beskar soldier stared back at him. The light within his heart compelled the mandalorian to remove his buy’ce and returned his gaze back into the shining water.

Talyc did not see himself as he was, but was shown a younger version of himself. The tips of his ears peaking out of short, black tufts of hair, his skin was less pale from seeing the sunshine. He was wearing the white and brown padawan robes from the Jedi temple. The mandalorian tried to find meaning in his bizarre experience with the Force. What was he trying to hell him?

All he really wanted was to cool the fire that burned in his soul.

Talyc began to tear his beskar’gam off of his body as if it were incinerating his flesh, he removed the under clothes with the same vigor until he was bare and vulnerable in the daylight that peeked through the canopy of the forest. The unarmored mandalorian stared at the glass-like surface of the water that revealed his true self reflected back at him until he stepped in. The moment the cool element of life touched his bare skin, Talyc felt his anger at the worlds, his shame over losing control, and his fear of being inadequate flow away from him in the ripples that waved and vibrated away from him into nothing, dissipated into the smooth still surface of the magnificent waters the mandalorian stood in.

He stepped further into the water, letting the Light banish the Darkness that threatened to consume him not long before. It was a baptism, and the Force his priestess granting Talyc, granting Ben, salvation from himself. Before he knew it, Talyc was waist deep in the lake, allowing the Force to become part of him and help guide his restless heart. The mandalorian took deep breaths and looked down at his reflection. Perplexed over how instead of his past self, or his current state, Talyc stared into the red bordered T-visor of his buy’ce.

“Who am I,” the lost prince of Alderaan said aloud to himself, knowing the only one who would listen was the Force herself.

The reflection began to move, reaching up with gloved hands to grasp the helmet and remove the headgear. Revealing his reflection, the image of himself that always stared back at Talyc when he was alone and unarmored. Talyc moved his hand to touch the reflection in the water, noting how his mirror image wore his beskar’gam, but as soon as his bare hand touched the very edge of the water making contact with the armored hand that reached back, the image faded away with the rings of rippling palpitations that expanded from his fingertips.

The mandalorian was no longer consumed by his grief and frustrations, only a welcomed clarity remained with him as he stood in the cool liquid clear as crystal. Talyc dove down into the shallow lake, allowing himself to be submerged by both the water and the Force that seemed to swim about with him. He soon felt so much of his anguish disperse into the lake, spreading so thin into the water that it had no power over him any longer. 

The mandalorian drifted under the clear water and stared at the blue-gray sky above him that speckled through the trees in large patches. He could feel his black hair float around his head like a crown of seaweed that tickled his cheeks and neck as he slowly rose to the air on the other side of the wall of water above him, breaking through the clear malleable sanctuary with a small splash, Talyc shook away the excess water from his thick hair, reveling in the chill that blew across his skin by the breeze.

“Ben!?” the most unexpected familiar voice cried out in shock from behind him.

Talyc turned around with a start to find Rey standing above him on the surface of the lake like an angel of Legos, beautiful and heavenly.

Only her eyes were wide with horror at the sight of the Mandalorian.

“Rey?” He muttered, unable to comprehend why the scavenger was so frightened. It was only him. Was it his lack of clothing? Or did she fear him to be the monster he believed himself to be deep inside after what she witnessed between him and Luke a short time before?

“Where the kriff are your legs!?”

“My...” Talyc looked down at the water, realizing that she must only see the half of his body that appeared above the water; meaning that wherever she was all Rey saw was her friend’s upper body sticking up out of the ground, or a floor. 

The mandalorian had also become very much aware of his nudity and his cheeks and ears became a light, rosy pink in the sun.

“I’m in water.” Talyc raised his hands up from the water to motion them in a non-threatening manner in the hopes that Rey would remain calm. “Where are you?”

“The temple,” Rey answered fast, darting her eyes around the temple floor, often returning her gaze to Ben whose upper body was suspended in the incredibly shallow water that covered the mosaic at the center of the holy space, “you’re inside the mosaic. This is really unsettling, will you please come out?” 

Talyc lowered his eyes to the lower half of his body submerged under the lake. The scavenger was either very naïve or incredibly brazen. “You don’t want me to do that,” the mandalorian said with a tinge of nervousness in his voice as he shook his head, his wet hair waving about as he did so. Yet a small, curious part of him deep within hoped that Rey of Jakku was being more brave and devious than unaware.

The woman before him narrowed her eyes as if she felt his secret aspiration, and challenged him. “Why not? Are you naked beneath the water?”

“So what if I am. Have you no shame?” The mandalorian retorted, letting the scavenger know that the challenge was both accepted and met.

Rey lifted her chin in mock defiance, “Shame is like water in the desert.” What she said next came out in a low voice from her lips as an unfamiliar glimmer shined in her amber eyes. Something dark began to blot and streak through her Force-signature like black ink creeping up white lace. “There isn’t any.”

Those words, said in that voice, arose passions Talyc was unaware he was capable of. Passions transformed into courage born from desires unexplored. His lust fueled bravery spurred the mandalorian’s steps forward to the edge of the lake. Rey took a step back at the same pace as his ascent from the water, each step revealing more of his muscular and scarred body. His form seemed sculpted from stone and flesh, a true masterpiece, mottled with beauty marks and scars large and small. The largest being a comet shaped scar across his chest, the nucleus and coma resting on his right pectoral and the tail streaked across to the left. 

Rey continued to step back as she glanced down at the rest of him. Just has athletic in build as the rest, his nether regions exposed without contempt, surrounded by a patch of thick dark hair at the apex of his thighs. She tried to add more distance between them, suddenly becoming quite bashful at the sight of the stunning nude man before her, only to feel her back hit the stone temple wall behind her. At the lake in the woods; however, the scavenger had backed into one of the large rock formations that surrounded the mystical body of water.

Rey glanced at the trail of water that splashed onto the floor from Ben’s end of the bond, her eyes followed the trail that led to the Mandalorian who stood inches from her. Realizing too late that she had ventured into uncharted territory in regards to human attraction and carnal needs. She observed his nude muscular form, dripping with water as he slowly placed his large hands on the smooth rock wall, caging her in. The scavenger bit the inside of her cheek as she tried to pull herself together. 

Though she was confined, Rey did not feel trapped. Her heart beat was so rapid she thought it would stop from exhaustion. Every part of this man’s body seemed to be artfully crafted by the maker itself, and the scavenger never knew that a man could be so attractive. She swallowed the lump in her throat but it was no use, her mouth was too dry and her cheeks were red as the blood that flowed beneath her skin.

“You’re blushing,” She heard Ben say in a voice that made her body flood with pleasure from the tips of her fingers down to her toes. Her stomach flipped as if she was falling off an old abandoned TIE fighter. Rey’s breath grew heavy and trembled as he leaned in and rasped in her ear, “Gar geroya cuyir Buruk.”

The son of a scoundrel leaned back and stared into her eyes with deep dark pools of obsidian. Eyes that seemed ancient as the Force himself. “Still have no shame, Oya’ika?”

The scavenger’s breath hitched in her throat. The old whores of Niima Outpost used to talk about primal pleasures and desires. Rey had always thought the topic was disgusting and vulgar, but in the moment her mind had begun to comprehend that her body was beginning to crave something her heart was still struggling to understand.

“No,” the word came out in a quiet but brave tone. Rey placed her hand on Ben’s firm chest, nearly as hard as the beskar he wore, still glistening with beads of clear water that shined like small round crystals set into his skin like jewels, and she traced her warm fingertips across his scar. 

The scavenger peered into the Mandalorian’s dark eyes, where the pupils ended and the irises began were a mystery to her. 

“I want to kiss you.” Rey whispered with a sultry voiced that surprised her.

“Tion’jer vaabir gar Ke’pare?”

Rey accepted Ben’s invitation and pushed herself up on her toes to press her warm, soft lips onto his, igniting a fire that set their insides ablaze. She brought her hand from his scar to cup his strong jaw and tangled her fingers into his black hair; still cool and damp from his soothing swim. The touch spurned Ben to bring one of his hands to the back of the scavenger’s neck and up into her chestnut brown hair. Fisting it tight as he pulled her closer and deepened the kiss with a hunger he had never felt before in his life.

Their minds were bridging in a haze of emotions unknown and new sensations of delight as the Force sang out into the cosmos harmoniously, celebrating two souls becoming one. But with this divine union came visions and memories as their minds mingled uncontrollably due to the starving need for each other’s touch. Their kisses became bruising and fierce as their desires had become all consuming. Ben moved his lips in a trail of licks and nips until he reached the scavenger’s neck, biting her pulse before nursing it tenderly. Rey moaned and the mandalorian marveled over how the same place he could strike someone dead could cause so much writhing, carnal pleasure. 

Rey was so engulfed by the thrill of Ben’s sensual touch that her mind unconsciously drifted deep into his. Her spirit came to, far away from the waking world, in a white desert, witnessing a man dying in the sand. The scavenger began to run to them but stopped when a young girl in familiar dingy rags ran to the poor soul who lay huddled in a heap in the endless, barren field. Even in the blinding sun she saw the three knots tied in the child’s hair and Rey of Jakku realized she was looking at herself, an image from her past; a nightmare she had long ago.

The scavenger inched closer to the child and the dying man in the sand, once she was close enough, Rey looked down to observe the images of a memory she was no longer sure was her own or Ben’s, for when the black haired man in, what she now knew since being on Ahch-To, Jedi robes looked up at her with darkening eyes as the child held his hand while kneeling beside him. Eyes that had grown heavy as death approached. He pleaded in a raspy dry voice she remembered vividly from her childhood.

“You shouldn’t be here.”

Before Rey could comprehend that the memory was talking _to her_ and not the image of her younger self, a large firm hand grabbed her arm to spin her around, and she stood face to face with an image of Ben with blood and sand smeared across his eyes and down the center of his face. Wearing the painted iron beskar’gam that was his usual attire.

This was not Ben.

The scavenger was staring at Talyc, or at least what Talyc represented to Ben, noting the shape of the blood on his face resembling the signature Mandalorian T-visor. In an instant Rey was cast out of the memory and when she was thrust back to reality the bond had been severed and she was alone again in the Jedi temple. She slid down the stone wall with her arms crossed over her chest as she sank to the floor. Pondering the nature of the memory she saw, of the nightmare she had pushed away years ago. 

So it was true what the miserable folk had said on Jakku. That with pleasure there would always be pain. Rey’s heart ached not only for Ben, but for herself. How could she have known that the nightmare was real? It had terrified her because it felt so true to life, so much so that the dream had stayed with her for years. But the scavenger assumed the authenticity of it was due to childish imagination and her mind processing the waking terror that was her day to day existence.

That day was the first time she had witnessed someone dying; Rey was only eight. And in the temple the very same dying man stood before her in nothing but his bare flesh. Bare but _very much alive_. 

She could only pray to R’iia herself that what Ben saw in the secret tomes of her memories did not frighten or harm him.

**

Talyc stood shaking as turned around and leaned against the warm stone where Rey once was seconds before. His hands covered his face to stifle the loud cry that wished to erupt from his throat; one of fury and anguish over what he had experienced and realized about their connection through the Force. The mandalorian finally understood why Rey had made a point to mention how safe his people made her feel. Such horrors that scavenger witnessed were rare and highly looked down upon in a culture where women were, in all ways, equal to men. But what astounded him was how _he_ was the reason why she felt safe around his people.

He had become so engrossed in his feverish need that he did not notice how or when he was whisked away into Rey’s mind. Coming to when he saw a younger version of the scavenger, barely thirteen by his guess, hiding behind an old decaying ship; desperately covering her mouth in ensure she kept quiet. He looked at the rest of his body, no longer naked he was wearing his original set of mismatched armor that he had discarded once he had acquired his full set beskar plates. The cold, blue light of the moon jogged his own memory, he had seen this place before in a nightmare years ago, and the mandalorian knew with an all too vivid recollection what would follow out of view beyond the wreckage.

##

The shrill cry of a woman’s screams, the loud tearing of clothes, the predatory laughter of men that made him want to expel the contents of his stomach still years later. 

##

Talyc knelt down just as he did years ago, reaching out to hold her shoulders tight as she silently cried in fear. Watching the tears flood from her eyes bloke his heart all over again. He looked into those wet eyes and assured her as best as he could, repeating what he had said in the dream in the same hushed whisper barely loud enough for each of them to hear.

“Listen to me, look at me, focus on me. I’ll stay with you, but you have to keep quiet. You have to survive. You _will_ survive. I’ll make sure of it.”

The adolescent version of Rey nodded and focused on him, how his face mirrored her own agony, the gentle squeeze of his shoulders. That was until she raised her eyes to look behind Talyc and he felt a foreboding presence behind him. When he turned his head to see who _or what_ could be hovering behind him he saw the scavenger in white from his dreams before the beginning of the epic journey he had become a part of, wielding her quarterstaff. She swung the weapon and hissed in a low and deadly hiss.

“Get out!”

And Talyc was naked and alone again. 

Sitting in the grass he leaned his head back on the stone behind him. He begged his father and Tarre Vizsla to assure him from the afterlife that he had not harmed the scavenger in any way with his actions. The mandalorian let out a quaking breath and ran his hands through his damp hair. Standing up to walk back to his beskar’gam so he could shield himself from the cruelty of the Galaxy once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again friends, please let me know if I need to go back and work on the CW.
> 
> Vabir nayc jorea’ir at ni, Jetii! - Do not speak to me, Jedi! (Lit. Do no speak to me, Jedi. As the word 'not' doesn't exist, as far as I understand)
> 
> Gar geroya cuyir Buruk. - Your game is dangerous.
> 
> Tion’jer vaabir gar Ke’pare? - Why do you wait?


	29. Porgs and Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rymey and Talyc have a long need talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope all is well. Chapter is longer that usual. Dont be afraid to kudo and comment.
> 
> How you like fluff. Sweet, sweet fluff.

Two weeks had passed since the events that had occurred at the mysterious lake. Rey and Talyc had been unusually polite to each other, and Skywalker had noticed the reservations in their Force-signatures. Both of them wanting to ask questions, but too weary of what the answers would be. His students were showing growth in their training; however, with Rey catching up to the Mandalorian’s skills in combat within record time.

Rey of Jakku was so much like his nephew Ben.

Speaking of whom.

“Hey, tin can!”

“That’s not my name!”

Luke drolled out a loud sigh much of the likes of an exasperated parent. “ _Talyc_ , I would like you and Rey to go out and do something. _Alone_.”

The emphasis on the word ‘alone’ caused the scavenger turned Jedi apprentice and the Mandalorian to freeze in mid strike. Rey’s amber eyes stared into Talyc’s T-visor with worry. Little did she know, the Mandalorian’s obsidian orbs were reflecting the same dread. They turned to their teacher at the same sluggish pace, causing the Jedi master to dramatically roll his bright blue eyes and shrug his shoulders.

“Oh, c’mon now, don’t look at me like I’m some sort of sadist! Chewie’s been missing for three weeks, and I can’t lie, I’m growing worried about him!”

The two trainees relaxed their stance and began to think. The Wookiee truly had been absent for the last three weeks. They had been so focused on their training and _other things_ to really think about it until Luke brought it to light. But the real question was, where the kark would a seven foot tall beast be hiding on a single island!?

“My guess is as good as yours, kids,” Luke spoke as if answering their silent questions. “I’m going to head to the harbor on the edge of the island to ask some of the locals if they’ve seen him. I want you both to look around the wilderness towards the center.”

The woods implied so much to the mandalorian, he was grateful his face was concealed behind his buy’ce as his cheeks and ears once again were burning hot and he knew his face was glowing pink with the sensation. Rey turned her face to Talyc, her own cheeks darkening with a red hue as similar thoughts ran through her head.

“It’s early enough in the day, you two should be able to search the island in its entirety before nightfall. And watch out for Porgs, will ya?”

“Porgs?” Rey and Talyc said in unison as they turned to their teacher. The scavenger had heard Luke mention them the day of the lake, but never elaborated more about what exactly they were. 

“Silly little things,” Luke answered his students as he strolled away. “Just know that if you find one, you’ve found ‘em all.”

The mandalorian and the scavenger’s eyes met again. There was a missing Wookiee, strange creatures known only by their silly name, and lastly, a day _alone_ in the seclusion of the island’s forests. With only the other for company. 

‘This was a recipe for disaster,’ they both shrieked into the Force!

Rey tried to calm her beating heart that quickened over the thought of being alone with Talyc again for the first time since their last experience with the bond, beating so hard that she could feel it pulse in her throat. ‘Some good could come of this,’ the scavenger reassured herself. They could talk their way into moving on, or establish some much needed boundaries. They were training to become Jedi for stars’ sake!

“I am no Jedi, Oya’ika.”

Rey jumped when she heard the Mandalorian speak. Was she muttering aloud to herself? Or was she just thinking so openly into the Force that Talyc simply happened to hear it?

“Let just go and find Chewie!” The scavenger huffed as she stomped ahead of her companion, feeling sheepish that she allowed her barriers to fall and reveal her inner thoughts to the very man she was thinking about.

**

Though Rey and Talyc searched through the woods in a comfortable silence, the lingering thoughts of what happened two weeks prior hovered around them like the herbal incense that Luke burned in their small campfires when they often meditated in the open air of the evening. They both desired answers, but were unsure about how to ask the questions. So the duo continued their trek, each pondering over what the other was thinking.

How long had the Force bound them together?

Why would they do so?

Was what she and he did wrong?

As Talyc thought to himself in silence Rey stopped and took a breath deep enough that her shoulders moved up with her inhale and fell with its release.

“Do you really feel that way?” There was a semblance of hurt in her voice when she spoke to the Mandalorian as he continued to walk forward.

He stopped a few steps ahead and turned to the scavenger. Had she heard his thoughts?

Talyc looked down at the black dirt that had been stamped into a crude path over years of creatures and his uncle walking through the woods.

“I don’t know.” The mandalorian answered with conflict emanating from his words. “I’ve never felt this way.”

Rey searched his feelings through his Force-signature, and what Talyc spoke was an undeniable truth. She saw in his heart that matters of romance and need had never concerned him in the past. The feelings that had come to twist the Mandalorian’s heart and cloud his mind were, though blissful, quite shocking and unfamiliar to him.

“To be honest,” the mandalorian added, turning to the woman who had begun to hold his heart in her hands, “I always believed I was incapable of feeling this way.”

Rey tilted her head and an eyebrow rose while she closed the gap between herself and her armored companion.

“I don’t quite understand. You’ve never had an infatuation with someone?”

“No,” Talyc answered the curious woman calmly as he shook his head. “Even when I was younger, before all _this_ ,” he gestured to himself, coaxing a chuckle from Rey. “People were just that; people.”

The mandalorian looked up at the forest’s canopy, at the sunshine that trickled through the gaps in the trees. “I would see my mother hold my father’s hand and wondered if I had the potential to do the same with someone. But even at the Temple on Yavin IV, no one made me feel the way that merely seeing you does.” He sighed and continued, “Then again, no one seemed to wish to get to know me, not like how you have.”

Talyc looked at Rey, there was a warmth in her eyes when she looked back at him and smiled in a way that brought him more comfort than he thought was possible. Maybe it was due to the fact that she had pieced together who he was behind his beskar’gam, maybe it was because she held his hand as he faded into the quiet of his demise ten years ago. Whatever the reason may be, Talyc was glad the scavenger from Jakku was accepting of a part of himself that he did not quite understand.

“It’s admirable. Where I’m from, people are rarely humanized.” The warmth in Rey’s eyes cooled and her smile faded. “I’ve seen things, _heard things_. When I drew my first blood, the local whore provided me with an implant. Just in case the unbearable happened,” she confessed and looked away to stare at a nearby tree root that snaked its way above the loamy soil. It seemed to Talyc that she wanted to avoid his gaze when she sighed. The air was heavy as the weight she carried on her shoulders.

“I was there. That night on Jakku.” Talyc admitted to the scavenger. “I never realized it was real. I had always believed it was just a horrible nightmare until the lake.”

‘So that’s what he saw,’ Rey pondered. Remembering the armored youth who helped her stay silent turned her focus on him. Staring into dark eyes that were black in the moonlight, and the low, rumbling voice that kept her out of harm’s way; that night she was taught to always trust a Mandalorian.

“That night, you appeared to be a full grown man.”

“I was.”

Rey bit the inside of her cheek for a moment. “How old are you,” she asked.

“Twenty-eight.”

“ _Oh!_ ,” Rey let out, her eyes turned to Talyc’s hidden stare with cheeks as pink as the dawn. She wondered if he knew that she was halfway through her eighteenth year. Her sudden bashful demeanor brought out a playful laugh from the Mandalorian.

“Does my age bother you?” Talyc asked her with only kindness and understanding in his voice.

“I- I don’t think so. This is, for the most part, new to me as well.”

“‘For the most part’?”

“Well, I have been _infatuated_ with someone...once.”

“What was he like?”

“ _They_ were one of the sweetest traveling merchants I’ve ever encountered.” Rey said with an air of nostalgia in her voice.

“ _Oh!_ ” It was Talyc’s turn to grow rosy beneath his buy’ce. He knew of the race Rey spoke of, they only had a single neutral pronoun as the dichotomy of male and female did not exist in their species. Talyc would often hear about how many were weary and fearful of them; spreading rumors that they were witches and charlatans who would rob one blind if not careful. Most bigoted humans and creatures simply avoided dealing with them in the bazaars and marketplaces, but Talyc had found that they were a kind nomadic people who were quite trustworthy. No one knew the name of their race or where they came from, all he knew was that, like himself, others referred to them simply as Oath-Keepers. As they were known to uphold their rules and keep a secret or promise better than anyone else in the Galaxy.

“Were they good to you?” The mandalorian asked the scavenger.

Rey laughed, covering her mouth to hide her toothy smile, “We never did anything! I just adored them from afar. But if I had a chance, I very much would have.”

The scavenger’s hands came together and she rubbed the back of one with the palm of the other. Her bottom lip was held in her teeth, and her dark eyelashes were casting shade on her amber eyes.

“You were my first.” Another confession, another longing gaze.

Talyc held an air of poise about him despite smiling like a damned fool behind his mask. But his farce broke, and he began to rub the back of his neck with a gloved hand. When did he become so shy?

“You were my first also.”

The air around the Jedi in training and her Mandalorian sparring partner had become thick and increasingly awkward. Both tried to think of a means to make conversation. Only to realize that there was no longer a wall between their minds, and every idea one thought, the other knew as if they thought it themselves. 

Before Rey and Talyc could vocalize their new knowledge, a strange movement was caught by their peripherals and they began to look around the woods.

“What the kriff was that!?” Rey whispered to her companion.

“I’m not sure.”

“Maybe it’s one of those porg creatures Luke told us about!” The scavenger sounded both excited and unsettled over the mysterious local fauna that may have kidnapped, or ate, Chewie.

Talyc spotted a pebble on the ground and called it to his hand. Whatever had been observing the two of them was still close. So the mandalorian did what any hunter would.

He waited.

What happened next, by Rey’s account, happened in a blur. Talyc, without warming, launched a rock into the bushes, and there was loud squawk that echoed through the trees as feathers flew around the bushes where the rock landed its blow. Then a strange little beakless bird with large black eyes scuttled out angrily, but stars it was adorable!

The odd little creature charged at Talyc and attempted to subdue him by trying to bite its way through the Mandalorian’s leather boot. The image that Rey observed was quite laughable until she and Talyc heard a cluster of shrieks and warbles that grew louder as whatever it was came closer. Before the two humans had time to react, a whole fleet of the pesky birds appeared; and with their flapping wings and mouths, open wide revealing small sharp teeth, lunged at Talyc in a rampage of feathers and webbed feet. Knocking him down to the ground as he flailed about, trying in vain to shoo away the creatures.

The scavenger nearly doubled over with laughter at the ridiculous sight. 

“I’d appreciate it if you’d stop giggling and _help me out_!”

“Oh c’mon! The infamous Black Beskar can’t handle a few little birds?” Rey teased through her bouts of laugher. But stopped when she heard the sounds of barreling footsteps from deep in the woods, thumping so hard on the earth that the ground shook slightly with each massive step. There was a rustle of tree branches and a single, very drawn out, word that howled through the air in Shyriiwook that translated to-

“Wait!”

Out of the low branches and bushes Chewbacca emerged with leaves and small twigs tangled in his matted fur. The little creatures that were trying to ravage the Mandalorian stopped and flocked to the Wookiee who immediately tried to shoo them away with his furry foot, growling in annoyance about their unwarranted affections.

“These damned things have been following me for three weeks! I can’t get away from ‘em!” Chewie hollered in a series of grunts and roars.

Talyc sat up and dusted off the dirt and feathers that covered his beskar’gam, “You mean to tell me, Chewbacca, the great war hero of Kashyyyk, veteran of the Clone War, the Galactic Civil War, and Vice General of the First Order-Resistance War, was held captive by a bunch of- what the kriff are these things anyway!?”

“All I know about these little bastards is that they won’t leave me alone!” Chewie howled while scooting the birds about with his foot so he could walk to his nephew and help him up. The small creatures glared at the Mandalorian with their large black eyes, some of them flapped their fin like wings and hissed in a poor attempt to look intimidating.

“Looks like they don’t like you very much, Talyc,” Rey crossed her arms as she observed the feisty little things. 

The way his name rolled on her tongue sent a shiver through the mandalorian so deep he could feel it in his bones. It was not like Rey had never said his name before, but after the heartfelt conversation they had, Talyc felt as if he had heard his name for the first time. 

“Not many do,” the mandalorian said with bravado, hoping Rey had not caught a glimpse of his thoughts. “C’mon, Chewie, Luke’s been worried about you.” Talyc looked at his uncle’s disheveled coat, “you look like you could use a bath and some well deserved sleep in a bed.”

“ _You_ know that I-” Chewbacca glanced at the scavenger who stared that the Wookiee with a inquisitive eye and remembered his promise to his nephew, “-I think you’re right!” The creature warbled, correcting himself, but glaring at the Mandalorian. Letting him know that their little conversation would be finished later, _alone_.

The trio, now united, began to head back to the Jedi Temple, but stopped upon hearing the whimpers of the flock of their new acquaintances. Their eyes were like big black saucers, shimmering when they trembled their little mouths. 

Rey smiled and cooed over the pitiful creatures, marveling about how adorable she believed they were. Unfortunately her admiration was seen as an invitation and with a flip-flap of many wings, they waddled after them. Much to the Wookiee and the Mandalorian’s dismay.

“Great job, Oya’ika!”

“Oh, can it, Mando!”

“You’re probably the only person in the Galaxy who can call me that and get away with it!”

“Shush already! Y’all are as bad as Han and Leia!” Chewbacca roared from ahead of the group, trying to outpace the webbed-footed creatures Rey had conjured. The scavenger met Talyc’s stare, somehow she knew he was looking into her eyes with nostalgia about his parents and something else. She could not put her finger on what it was. All she knew was that the emotion was meant for her alone.

The two trainees hurries after the Wookiee, with their new tribe of feathered friends scuttling about behind them to keep up.

**

“No! You’ve brought porgs back with you!?”

Talyc and Chewbacca both pointed their fingers at Rey while the porgs ran about the moss and rocks around them. Squawking and chirping in a curious delight about their new surroundings.

“Rey!” Luke scolded his student.

“Don’t look at me! Chewie’s been camping with them for three weeks! They were bound to follow us back!”

“Well if it weren’t for you,” Chewie shook a fist playfully in the scavenger’s direction before clasping his hands together to lean them on his cheek like a young smitten maiden, making whimpering and cooing sounds a child would make when seeing a bantha calf or a loth-cat kitten. “ ‘aww, how cute!’ They wouldn’t have followed!” The Wookie continued to tease in his strange language.

Rey rolled her eyes and smiled. The porgs really were adorable little things. She could not help it.

The old Jedi shrugged his shoulders and shook his head, “I did tell you, if you found one you’d find them all.” As he said that, one flew up onto his shoulder and stared at him. He gently pushed the bird off with his prosthetic hand and the porg flapped to the ground in a safe landing. Becoming distracted by some other movements in the mossy dirt. 

“I brought home fish from the village, I’ll get a fire going. Talyc,” the Mandalorian turned and met Luke’s blue eyes, “would you care to stay? I know you won’t be able to eat with us, but you are more than welcome to take your plate back to your ship later. Everyone needs good company once in a while. You can’t just help the kid train and go back to your ship every night, it’ll get to you.”

The Jedi’s tone was polite and bland, but his eyes, as blue as the skies of fertile landscapes, like Ahch-To on a clear day, were pleading. If his uncle had asked he same question the day before he would surely have answered with a hard ‘no!’ The mandalorian did not understand the growing change of heart, but he felt inclined to stay.

Talyc spotted Rey with a porg cradled in her arms. She saw him; in ways beyond sight, and smiled.

 _Please_ , she said through their connection in the Force.

The mandalorian turned back to his uncle and gave the old man an answer.

“I think a warm meal would be a welcomed change. One can only eat ration packets for so long.”

**

The suns had set, earning a much needed rest beyond the horizon, a short time ago. Luke had retired for the night and Chewie opted to return to the Mythosaur with a couple of porgs sneaking along behind him. Rey and Talyc had ate together after everyone had left with their backs turned and enjoyed their meal in a well deserved peace. With warm food and cool water in their bellies, and the temperate climate of the island around them, Talyc replaced his buy’ce and sat with the scavenger by the campfire among the murder of porgs that either slept or cuddled in their laps.

Porgs were small, Vod’ika would probably enjoy them.

“Your brother likes animals?” Rey asked the Mandalorian as she felt his thoughts projecting through the bond. She scratched the head of a porg that cooed and purred over her touch with closed eyes while she awaited a answer. 

Talyc was going to need to learn how to control that.

“He loves them!” The mandalorian replied with more excitement than he meant to convey. This was the first time he was able to talk about his clan, his family, in such a personal way.

The golden flames of the fire reflected off of his visor and his breastplate when he added more to his statement.

“That is to say, he loves to _eat_ small animals.” He looked down and felt quite sheepish about how he sounded to his friend. 

“Well we all do. It’s-”

“No. He just eats them... _Alive_.”

Rey giggled into the night, trying to picture a little boy stuffing a porg in his mouth. But then she realized an important detail that Talyc had seemed to have left out.

“Vod’ika isn’t human.” Talyc told the scavenger as her epiphany was felt through the bond. 

“What is he?”

“We actually don’t know.”

Rey tilted her head, curious about what Talyc’s little brother was.

“Here,” the mandalorian smoothed out the old ashes from past fires with his hand and began to draw a small creature’s head with a gloved finger, with long ears and large eyes; and then a small robed body that covered where his feet would be, and three digits on his hands. 

“This is my brother.” he said when he finished his drawing in the ashes.

Rey inspected the drawing in the ashes and looked up at Talyc. She reached up and ran her fingers across the green triangle that was painted on the side of his helmet. The Force showed her a memory from long ago in her mind, of a small green creature reaching up to an unarmored Talyc, a prince in hiding, and touching his ear that peeked from his black tresses with a bright smile and a twitch of his own large green ears.

“He saw himself in you. That’s why you have the green triangles on your buy’ce.”

The Mandalorian nodded and confirmed the scavenger’s discovery.

“He used the Force to save my life. And showed me how to treat the Force like a playful friend, instead of a catalyst of power. It still amazes me how an alien creature managed to humanize the Force so well.”

Rey smile was as a warm as the heat of the flames from the campfire. She envisioned Ben’s coming of age with the tribe and how Talyc was an evolution of who he was. How they were one and the same. She also saw the pain and loneliness Ben felt as a child; how his parents loved him dearly but were seldom around to show him the love he so desperately craved and deserved. Causing the darkness he warred with constantly to fester and rot away at him further. What Rey did not understand was why did Ben’s inner darkness suddenly disappear when he was found by Vod’ika and Din Djarin on Mandalore? Regardless of her questions, the answers she found helped the scavenger understand the man she had grown to care for so much.

“You love your clan dearly.” Rey finally spoke.

“I do.”

“I think I understand now. Why you’re so loyal to them.”

“Do you?” Talyc asked, curious to hear her answer.

Rey of Jakku stared into Black Beskar’s T-visor knowing his eyes were shining behind his mask.

“Just now, I saw your past. There was a darkness that followed you no matter where you ran. Your parents were faulted by their own ambitions, so their love could not outshine what had seeded inside your heart.” Tears rolled down Rey’s cheeks, “But Din Djarin, and your brother, they never left your side. And Vod’ika, his light shines so bright, one would believe his Force-signature was a star.”

The scavenger wiped her eyes with he palms and heaved a rattling breath. “I only thing I can’t wrap my head around is how the darkness that nearly consumed you simply disappeared.”

“I think I may have the answer for that.” Talyc released his own sigh, “The Dark side of the Force is about using and taking. I was being used, and as I was dying on Mandalore the voices disappeared because I was no longer deemed useful. When Vod’ika healed my wounds, I believe my Force-signature was simply outshined by the sheer brightness of his light. That day, for the first time in my life, I had never been so happy to be disregarded and unnoticed. Because I was finally free.”

“You felt trapped by your lineage,” Rey said provoking a nod in agreement from the Mandalorian, “and whoever was trying to warp your mind wished for you to be trapped in Darkness as well.” She caressed the soft feathers of the porg that had fallen asleep in her lap. The fire was warm and soothing as it popped and sizzled through the humid air and green wood That burned in the flames.

“It all makes me wonder if your uncle intended for you to survive his onslaught. If the reason he did what he did was so that you could _live_.”

A flash of heat spread from Talyc’s core to the very edges of his being. What if the scavenger was right? Could it be that Luke was trying to set him free from the burdens of his legacy and the Darkness that constantly slithered about his mind during his youth? Part of the mandalorian wanted answers, but the rest of him felt that it would be the wisest choice to simply let it all go.

“If that were true, Rey, I wish his methods were a little less painful.” Talyc snarked into the night, staring up at the night sky shimmering with stars and clusters of far away planet systems, wondering which one of those twinkling specks could be home. No matter, the star map of the unknown regions were a true sight to behold. The unfamiliar star fields and constellations made Talyc feel as if he were looking up at the night sky for the very first time.

His hand, placed firmly in the dirt slid across the ground and the mandalorian placed his gloved hand over the scavenger's free hand that rested flat on the ground beside him.

Rey basked in the heat of Talyc’s hand as they gazed and marveled at the unfamiliar sky above. Hoping to the Force that there would always be moments like this throughout her life with him by her side.


	30. Trust and Forgiveness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn finds out that Rose is up to something. Talyc finds Ry taking a midnight swim.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost 200 kudos! My goodness!!!
> 
> Do enjoy. I hope you lovely readers like the update.
> 
> Translation notes are at the bottom.

“Rose!?”

“ _Gah_!”

The Resistance mechanic flailed about as she desperately tried to hide the mask she had been crafting under the mess of papers and blueprints on her desk.

“What!?” Rose shouted louder than she anticipated, hoping Finn had not seen anything when he opened the door to her quarters.

The defector stepped into the room and scooted away the very papers that covered the mechanic’s secret project, and picked up the item that had sourced his own curiosity and worry. The mask, adorned with deep red rose petals, once fresh but currently preserved in a thin coat of clear plastoid polymer.

“Rose...” Finn asked his friend, whom he had grown quite close to since joining the ranks of the Resistance, with a furrowed brow and concern in his deep umber eyes as he looked between the girl and the mask she was making, “what is this?”

“Nothin’,” the younger Tico sister shrugged while fiddling with a pencil as if nothing was amiss and she had not just been caught red handed being up to some secret scheme.

Finn was no fool, and he cocked an eyebrow at his friend, crossing his arms as he leaned against the closed door of her living space and he waved the mask in the air. “Are you going to sneak your way into the masquerade?”

“Nope!” Rose answered quickly as she feigned ignorance.

Finn may have been free from the First Order nearly a month ago, but the former stormtrooper was not born that day. And he knew a lie when he heard one. It had become one of many skills he had developed during his occasional training with Leia Organa. A few days after Rey and Talyc had embarked on their journey to find Luke Skywalker, the Rebel Princess had offered him her guidance in the ways of the Force, much to his surprise.

_“There is great strength within you, Finn. If you’d like, I’d be more than willing to help you bring it to the surface.”_

And while moving small objects with his mind were amazing, the defector felt his greatest skills had more to do with reading people and their emotions. For the time being.

Emotions like the very one’s Rose was unknowingly revealing to the Force like pages in an open book.

“You’re going to go to the masquerade, aren’t you?”

Rose Tico crossed her arms in an attempt to mimic her friend while leaning back in her chair. “Maybe,” she said with defiance.

“ _Rose_!”

“ _Fine_! Yes I am!”

“Why?” Finn asked in a loud, but non-threatening, voice as he fiddled the mask in his hands until Rose snatched it from him.

“Because Autumn and I are meeting in person there!”

 _Autumn_. The very word provoked the memory of Talyc saying it at the cantina during Hux’s negotiation over payment. How the fear in the First Order General’s eyes flickered as he barked out a bluff and aimed a blaster at his head while he sat defenseless and tied to a dusty old chair; all because of the phrase ‘Autumn leaves’. That day Finn realized there was something within him that called to be free, and he knew it was not the desperate erratic thoughts of a man facing death for the Mandalorian saw it too. Finn also had seen within Hux’s heart at the time, that he was truly a man to not make idol threats, but promises of harm. But he had also seen how the ruthless general of the First Order was a conflicted man who was beginning to follow his heart, which was something Finn thought Hux was incapable of. 

“You mean to tell me General Armitage Hux of the First Order is _your_ contact!?”

Finn knelt down to face his friend at eye level and placed his hands on her shoulders. His dark eyes matched his smooth skin that glowed in the lamp light of the room, but they were full of dread and warning as he spoke to Rose.

“Rose, that man is dangerous! The troopers and officers call him the ‘Rabid Cur’ for a very good reason! What if it’s a trap!?”

“You sound like Admiral Ackbar!” The mechanic brushed off the former stormtrooper’s hands from her shoulders. He did not know Autumn like she did!

“I’m serious! Hux put a blaster to my head and was ready to shoot. He would’ve killed Rey if Talyc hadn’t stopped him! Hux-”

“That’s enough!” Rose interrupted in a sharp voice. “What the First Order _sees_ , and what I _hear_ are two different men. I don’t expect you to understand!”

Finn ran a hand through his ever growing tight curls, his hair was cut so short for so long the soft, airy texture of his hair becoming longer than ever was new and exciting to him; to touch it, to brush it, it was a liberating and soothing experience, like finally obtaining a part of himself that was locked away just out of his reach. But in moment, while in Rose’s quarters the young man was touching his hair to calm his apprehension.

“I sure hope you’re right. But you can’t do this by yourself. You do realize that place will be swarming with stormtroopers?” Finn sighed and a small smile crept up his full lips. “And you’ll need one on your side in that jewel encrusted sarlacc pit.”

Rose’s onyx eyes lit up and she smiled, showing her white teeth as her dimples dipped in her cheeks.

“You wanna see the dress I’m gonna wear!?”

Finn huffed a laugh and nodded his head, “You bet I do!”

So Finn and Rose began to flesh out the mission that would take place in less than five weeks. Hoping that everything they thought out would go according to plan.

**  
Another two weeks has passed since Rey and Talyc had found Chewbacca and his small herd of porgs. Their teacher had been absolutely correct about how pesky the little birds were. Rey often awoke to one’s large black eyes watching her sleep, sitting on her chest and chirping it’s odd gobble. Talyc and Chewbacca struggled with porgs sneaking onto the Mythosaur and scuttling about the Kom’rk-class fighter, sneaking into places they certainly did not belong. Like the ventilation ducts, the carbon freezing chamber, the storage in the galley, and inside the navigation panels- much to the mandalorian and the Wookiee’s surprise and frustration. 

One porg had eventually gotten frozen in carbonite due to another waddling on the large device’s control module. Poor uncle Chewie had trouble trying to eat a meal to himself as the silly creatures would pick at the Wookiee’s food while they distracted him with their antics, so much so that the bellowing roar of a hungry Chewbacca had become a common sound that echoed through the Mythosaur, and even out into the sacred island.

Luke’s mood seemed to grow grumpier with the porg presence as well. Most likely due to them cuddling with him and sometimes napping on his head during meditation sessions, often to Rey and even Talyc’s laughter.

The night was warm, dark and humid when Rey almost fell out of her bed after nearly rolling over and crushing a porg in her sleep, woken up by a shrill squawk, flapping wings and webbed feet. Upon searching the hut for any other anomalies and seeing nothing else posed a threat in the small home, the scavenger was glad that the fire had dulled to embers as she felt dreadfully uncomfortable in the night’s climate. She could typically handle the heat, but the deserts are dry, the warm weather of Ahch-To was a stickier heat with the humidity, making the air thick and barely breathable. Luckily for Rey, there was water in abundance, plenty to drink and more than enough to bathe in.

Perfect conditions for a midnight swim.

Like a mischievous urchin Rey hopped out of bed and left her hut to wander through the night for the nearest body of water to cool her warm tired skin.

**

The climate controls of the Mythosaur were off, it was the more practical choice as the conservation of fuel was necessary when occupying a planet in the Unknown Regions. The humidity was causing sleep to avoid Talyc as the mandalorian had grown too comfortable with the milder temperatures of the last month. And though he had honed his control of the Force immensely, connecting with it in a way that was deep, enriching and had brought on a period of healing for his soul that he did not know how to process and grow from in the past. 

Unfortunately the price of such growth had been paid with his ability to endure the elements to atrophy, leaving him in the sweating sorry state he was in on his bed, in the sweltering cabin on the Mythosaur.

So on the humid night Ahch-To had blessed the island with was a perfect opportunity for Talyc to remind his body that the Galaxy was unrelenting and he must always be ready and strong enough to survive whatever it may throw at him, doing so by laying in his bunk fully armored while he meditated to control his body’s response to the discomfort.

That was until he saw through the Force a vision of Rey turning around to face something unknown and hearing a scream leave her mouth while her eyes widened in fear upon seeing whatever it was she saw. Like lightening, Talyc pulled his beskad that was hidden within his armor plates and sped out of his ship, running at a full sprint to the direction of the scavenger’s Force-signature.

**

Rey was enjoying her nighttime swim in the lake she discovered in the woods towards the center of the island. She wondered if this was the same place Ben had found during their last bond through the Force. The scavenger began to feel a wave of warmth wash over her, and her face down to her shoulders reddened over the thoughts of the pleasures she recalled of the memory. Standing only waist deep in the lake by a few large rocks that peeked up from the water’s surface, she glanced down at her reflection, her time with the Resistance and at the Jedi Temple to train was only a little over a month, but she could hardly recognize the toned form that stared back at her.

Rey found it hard to believe that not too long ago she was so thin she looked frail. Now; however, the scavenger from Jakku had gained a small amount of muscle, her breast began to swell slightly and her hips rounded out some as well. The remarkable wonders of training at a steady pace and regular meals of substantial food. For the first time Rey looked at her body and saw a woman, one that was beginning to pave her own path. Not a hungry, scared child that wanted nothing more than to find home in the arms of a family that would never come back for her.

Staring at her reflection while deep in thought Rey did not notice the large porg that landed onto the rock beside her and waddled in place. It’s single chirp startling the scavenger so much she shrieked into the night like the scared child she believed herself to have outgrown moments before. Once she realized what had frightened her was none other than one of the islands prolific pests, Rey ran out of the water and chased the fat bird off.

“You pesky little-arrgh! I can’t seem to get away from you feathered vermin- _AHHH!_ ”

Rey began to scream again, not because of porgs interrupting her train of thought, but due to Talyc running out of the trees with a large dagger in his hand ready to strike, bellowing a battle cry into the night before he stopped short of the scavenger. Reacting on reflex, Rey shot out her arm and with a broad sweep, threw the Mandalorian across the clearing and slamming him hard enough into the ground that he tumbled a few feet further after he landed. The scavenger covered her mouth with both hands and hurried to her companion, kneeling down and apologizing profusely for her instinctive actions.

“Oh stars, Talyc, I’m so sorry! What were you doing out here anyhow?! Oh my gods, are you alright?” 

Talyc laid still, covering his visor with his armored forearm. Rey reached for him to make sure he was not seriously injured. But when she touched his arm he finally spoke.

“Please, don’t.”

The scavenger leaned back and placed her hands on her lap. “Why?” she asked, tilting her head in confusion. Talyc spotted how her damp hair clung to her shoulders and streaked her tanned freckled skin like brush strokes. It was the finest calligraphy he had ever seen.

What was it Rey said about shame and water in the desert? The mandalorian was too flustered to think, so he simply gestured to all of her nude beauty with his free hand.

“Surely you’re joking.” She breathed a small lilting laugh into the quiet of the night. With the water and the trees as her only witnesses. “You were so bold when the situation was the other way around.” The scavenger was in a full blown giggle fit on the soft green grass beneath them. Too focused on the humor of their swapped roles, Rey was unaware that Talyc had removed his forearm from his visor. To see the most beautiful woman in the Galaxy sing her mirthful laugh, naked, with her hair fully down in the shining moonlight; and the haze of the islands humidity casting a blur that seemed to make her glow. The mandalorian and Alderaan prince had never seen such splendor and had doubts he ever would again.

‘She couldn’t be real.’ Talyc thought, reaching up to touch her face, the scavenger’s laughter ceased when he did so. But there was no fear or apprehension in her amber eyes that tried to gaze into his hidden ones as his fingers weaved through her wet hair. What Rey of Jakku did next had surprised the mandalorian as he believed such a gesture was reserved for the man he felt he no longer was.

The scavenger leaned into his touch, her eyes were dark when they met his again, but Talyc swore there were flakes of blue from the glowing moonlight that were captured and beautifully trapped within shining irises.

“Te me’suum’ika cuyir mesh’la o’r gar jarkiv.”

Rey was blissfully stricken by his words, all she could do was blink as she tried to open her mouth to speak but the words never left her tongue. She felt that her actions ought to speak for her instead. So she reached down and slid her fingertips along the side of his buy’ce, wishing dearly she could do so to the face that hid beneath. The Force had stood back and merely observed them from afar, never giving them the grace to meet through their mysterious bond for the last four standard weeks. 

“Rey.”

“Talyc.”

Stars, his heart nearly stopped every time she spoke his name. The same way it would skip if she called him ‘Ben’ when they were alone together. It did not matter what she called him, the reaction was always the same, he would feel like he was no longer alone in the Galaxy. 

Alone, though he was surrounded by server droids and diplomats from all corners of the Galaxy, Ben Solo was always alone. To know that his loneliness, to him, was nothing compared to the desolate isolation Rey endured on Jakku since she was youngling was a beskar needle in his heart. The horrors she witnessed and survived unscathed by the grace of the silent gods made him rethink how some of his actions may have been harmful. Talyc thought of their duel on D’Qar and sighed a shame filled breath over how he pressed himself too close and spoke words he felt may have been on the borders of obscene As he reflected on his believed misdeeds.

“There were some things I said, and did, during the fight back on D’Qar. I hadn’t known then what you had been through, and I-”

“Stop.”

Rey’s voice was soft and small, and she took the Mandalorian’s hand that had gently played with her hair in her own. With the utmost gentleness and fluidity she removed the glove from it with no effort. Talyc wondered if she intended to reveal the hand that bore the scar that symbolized the bond with his clan as she caressed the thin line across his palm. It was a touch that caused a flood of warmth to spread through his entire being as images of the knife that broke through his skin and the clasping of hands that forever bound him to his found brother forever in blood, the painting of his face in slow strokes by a gloved hand. 

The mandalorian feared those visions passed through their bond and would frighten her, but such thoughts and fears died as he drank in the image of the scavenger pressing her lips on the thin scar in the most loving and thoughtful gesture he had ever received. It was like she was returning the kiss he gave her when he believed he was telling her goodbye, before his mother convinced him that she was part of his path and that her jouney to Ahch-To should become _their_. It was when the survivor of Jakku brought his bare hand to her face and, with her hand holding his wrist, moved him lower to caress her neck, her collarbone...

Talyc could not speak to ask what she was doing, he could not breathe. His body pulsed with adrenaline as if he were in the midst of the fight of his life, urging along with his soul to act while his conscience tried to simply understand the feelings he wanted to cave into. The mandalorian’s mind and logic was victorious in the struggle for dominance, and Talyc clenched his jaw tight and focused on his hand, now placed over the center of Rey’s chest, and he felt the calm drumming of her heartbeat behind skin and bone. Offering herself to him in a way she never had anyone else, speaking without words that he was worthy, deserving, and that she truly felt safe in his presence.

In that moment his body had suddenly become aware of hers, every curve of her soft frame, every peak and hill of toned muscle; constellations and galaxy clusters of small scars and freckles throughout her skin. The mandalorian had also become aware of himself, how his heart pounded like a war drum in battle, how his body suddenly ached to be touched, his thoughts drifting to the memory of her taste on his lips when she kissed him a standard month before.

Talyc desired more, longing to offer himself to Rey in the same way she was giving herself to him under the moon and stars as their silent observers. But he feared doing so would mean forsaking his clan and would damn himself in the eyes of his people.

The mandalorian sat up, pulling his hand away from the soothing metronome that was the scavenger’s heartbeat, allowing his fingertips to linger on her skin, letting her know how much he craved her closeness. He caressed her hand that held his glove before gently taking back what belonged to him.

“I should go,” Talyc whispered in a low, hungry voice. His passions waning too far for his comfort as he was barely holding himself back. Nothing more did the mandalorian want than for Rey to ask him to stay, and he made a wager with the Force that if she did, he would finally let himself be one with his desires and wants. 

Much to his relief and dismay; however, the scavenger nodded after a moment of hesitation, and Talyc realized through the openness of her thoughts that she would not pressure him into staying, and that his honor mattered to her as much as it did him. That no matter what she would stand beside him at all costs.

That he was not alone. 

He never was.

Talyc smiled warmly behind his buy’ce, hoping Rey could feel the content bliss he felt through the Force as he stood up and bid her good night.

Rey watched the man who battled in a civil war inside himself return to the dark trees until he disappeared in the shadows of the night that were as black as his armor. When she was absolutely certain that the Mandalorian was gone, the scavenger took in a deep breath through her nose, sprang to her feet and sprinted to the lake. Jumping higher than she thought possible before colliding with the water that felt much too cool for her body that seemed as if it were engulfed in the flames of lust.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I enjoy writing Rose and Finn scenes. They are BROTP in this story. 
> 
> beskad - mandalorian iron dagger/sword 
> 
> Te me’suum’ika cuyir mesh’la o’r gar jarkiv - "The moon is beautiful in your presence." 
> 
> Thank you all for reading as always. Don't be afraid to tell me what you think in the comments.


	31. The Pilot's Motive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Poe speaks with Leia about his feelings for Finn, and finds out more than he bargained for about his crush.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my gosh 200 kudos!!! Thank you all so much for reading!!! 
> 
> So this chapter will be all about our favorite Resistance pilot and his blossoming love for our friendly neighborhood former stormtrooper.
> 
> Enjoy!

D’Qar mornings were one of Poe Dameron’s favorite experiences of the Galaxy. Sitting on the edge of a cliff outside of base, the brunette with wild curls watched the morning unfold while he held his mother’s wedding ring. His most prized possession that he wore at all times around his neck, the only token of his life before the chaos of the Galaxy’s return to civil war and his short lived time on the wrong side of the law. The home of the Resistance base was not Yavin IV, but the pilot enjoyed the cool mountain air that blew down from the south and the sweet, enticing smell of jungle flowers that danced with the wind. The sun seemed to shine brighter and the green leaves of the trees above seemed richer in color as of late. Especially when Poe was in the presence of the young new rebel simply known as Finn. 

The defector had the former spice runner turned Resistance fighter mesmerized as a moth in the moonlight. Something the pilot had once believed to be a simple infatuation of a new face had become a daunting tsunami of emotions Poe was more than willing, yet absolutely terrified, to drown in. It was not the fact that Finn was a man as Poe Dameron was quite comfortable with his sexuality. How could anyone not resist the young man with umber skin that had not one blemish, onyx eyes full of kindness, and full kissable lips that made the pilot’s blood burn hot with desire, but also made his heart flutter with affection and admiration? He clenched his hand around the ring as he thought about the man who made him feel like an utter fool overwhelmed by bliss.

Oh, how he adored everything about the former stormtrooper. For not only was he handsome, Finn was daring as well. The man was an amazing tactician, and was gifted in giving comprehendible instructions to the troops in hand to hand combat. Both brilliant and patient as he taught his new comrades to fight against the First Order effectively. Not to mention his skills as a marksman with a blaster! To think everyone from the Old Rebellion said stormtroopers always miss! 

And his nature with the Force was awe-inspiring. Nothing like the Mandalorian’s raw, and sometimes violent, strength; honed through a life of struggle and necessity. Leia herself, had mentioned that Finn’s connection with the Force was deeply in tune with the Light despite his origins in the dark regime. Poe did not know too much about the Force, other than some trees can connect with it, but he would observe the defector train with Leia and he seemed to _feel_ a calm that rarely settled in his heart take root like the uneti tree in his homestead as a child.

The General! Poe remembered that he needed to see her right away. So he hopped up onto his feet and turned away from the beautiful view of D’Qar’s lush landscape to return to base. 

Leia Organa was like a second mother to the pilot, having known his mother and grown close to her during the Rebellion, the General had noted that Shara Bey was one of the strongest and kindest women she had ever had the grace to meet. The day Han had flagged him down during his final spice run, the Second General offered him a place in the Resistance on the count of Poe’s piloting skills, and as an oath to Kes that he would bring his prodigal son home one day, in one piece.

_“You’re one helluva pilot, Spice Runner, we could use your help in a resistance.”_

_“For what? Just so we can go to war with some other wack jobs twenty years after we ‘win’?”_

_“How about so you can come home to Kes someday! Instead of rotting away in a First Order prison cell when you eventually get caught!”_

The old smuggler had explained the importance of his promise, stating that he could never do the same for his own son, who had died years before. Moved and abashed over his running away from home the Republic, Poe Dameron had agreed to join Han Solo and the Resistance in the hopes that he could return to Yavin IV and pick up his life where he left off.

Zorii and Babu were reluctant but eventually came around to the pilot’s wish to leave. So they saw him off with will wishes and ‘don’t die out there, you idiot’ speeches. And just in time too. None other than Black Beskar Talyc Solus had searched Kajimi for the pilot and the ludicrous bounty attached. Maker only knew the true worth of his head, but Poe was certain that the bounty amounted to a fortune large enough that the hunter could buy himself a planet if he desired. And that was just the Queen Mother Tenel Ka Chume Ta’ Djo’s price that was placed. What with being wanted in one hundred and twelve other star systems, the man was a walking treasure trove.

Though rumor had it; however, that the bounty was placed at the request of the old dragoness Ta’a Chume, as Tenel Ka was more focused on actually running the Hapes Consortium and not catering to the internal circus that was the Hapen Royal Court.

Alas, the follies of being the _former_ best spice runner and gallent of the known Galaxy.

At least the Mandalorian seemed more concerned with aiding Rey of Jakku and his own connection with the Force than retiring on a planet all his own to do...whatever it was that Mandos’ do in their free time. For that, Poe Dameron was forever grateful.

Poe shook his runaway thoughts aside as he jogged through the woods back to the Resistance base, spotting General Organa out in the clearing. Wearing a fine tailored forest green dress of Naboo high fashion that suited the wonderful weather of the day, with a high neck collar but with open shoulders that turned into draping sheer sleeves, and what looked to be a comfortable fitting bodice that allowed the General to move freely as she carried out her business throughout base, all to drape elegantly down to the earth, covering what Poe knew were the impeccably matched shoes that may have been crafted specifically for that dress. She was talking to Kaydel by the command center, no doubt about high command business that the pilot was often left out of, much to his relief.

“General! You have a minute?”

The Resistance General and the Lieutenant glanced at the pilot before Leia turned back to Kaydel and nodding, letting the young lieutenant know that their meeting was over and the blonde in braids pinned up in her hair strolled off. She passed Poe with a mischievous glint in her eye.

“Lemme guess, _boy problems_?” Connix asked with a mock scandalous shimmy of her slender shoulders.

“Hush, Conni, find yourself a girlfriend yet?” Poe quipped back with the same speed he would fly an X-wing through an asteroid field

“Hey!” The Lieutenant exclaimed as she smacked her friend and confidante on the arm in a playful manner. All jokes aside, Poe was compassionate and understanding when Kaydel had come to him with tears in her eyes over how she felt different when it came to whom she had romantic feelings for. When she figured herself broken and defective, Poe explained to her that she was perfect just the way she was, and that she should be proud of the fact that she found women attractive without fear of persecution.

After all, was that not part of what the Resistance was fighting for? The right to the freedom to be oneself without persecution?

“Alright, alright,” Poe put his hands up in mock surrender as he conceded defeat. “See you at lunch?” He asked with a smile.

“Sure, now go on and sort out your boy stuff.”

“Yeah, yeah!”

Poe noticed General Organa smile as warm as the morning sunshine as she rolled her eyes and shook her head. Possibly thinking something along the lines of ‘that there is the future of the Galaxy’ and hope filling her heart as she witnessed such playful antics in the midst of war. So he hurried over to her with quick, jogging steps.

“What is it, Dameron?” The General asked, though her voice was commanding, the soft features of her face conveyed that she had an idea that their conversation was going to be a lighter one in nature.

“I just needed some motherly advice.”

“Well, c’mon then, I have places to be while we talk.”

Poe and Leia began to travel through the Resistance base as he explained his troubles in regards to his new companion. The princess General chuckled to herself when he finished.

“I don’t see what the problem is, Dameron. We all are very much aware of how persuasive you can be. Not just anyone in the Galaxy can swoon a Hapen lord of the Royal Consortium. And you managed to do so with a few dozen.”

“Wait!? _You_ know about that!?” The color seemed to drain from Poe’s copper skin.

“Poe! _Everybody_ knows about that!” Leia Organa chided with a grin. The Resistance pilot wondered if he was ever going to live that down. He ran his hand through his thick, dark curls that shimmered a hint of red in the sunlight.

“General, I think I’m falling for him.”

Not often in her eventful life was Leia taken aback to the point of silence, but she certainly did not think there was anything Poe Dameron could say that would ever provoke such a response from her. Stars, was she wrong! She blinked and took a short breath, trying to not reveal her surprise to the young man who was pouring his heart out to her for fear he would repress the feelings he was currently so willing to be open about.

“Well,” she spoke.

The pilot watched and waited for the words of wisdom he sought out, only to see the General’s smile as she stared back at him. Poe blinked and shrugged his shoulders.

“‘Well’? General, I’m opening my heart to you and _that’s_ all you have to say?”

Leia sighed and shook her head. Her brown eyes looked into Poe’s, her gaze soft and warm as the sunshine that illuminated the world around them. The hustle and bustle of the Resistance carrying out their daily duties seemed to fade away as their conversation grew more personal and deep.

“You remind me so much of Han.”

Poe chuckled to himself, “Are you calling me a scoundrel, General?”

“ _No_! I mean you’re uncertainty. Han may have seemed debonair and confidant in his old age. But his heart was broken in his youth. It wasn’t broken because he lost her to the war or someone else, no; his heart was shattered due to who she had become when he found her years later. And he believed if he had not lost her while trying to escape their rough lives, she would not have become a villain in his origin story. Because of that he believed he was unworthy of finding love again, as a poetic punishment for abandoning it for the sake of freedom. That was what took him so long during the Galactic Civil War to man up and take my hand.”

Poe had never realized how conflicted General Solo’s past was. The surly old smuggler had his complexities well hidden behind a quick wit and years of downright grump.

“What eventually made him believe he could love you?- If you don’t mind me asking of course. If you do mind, I'll shut my mouth right now-”

“To be honest, Poe, I myself am not too sure.” Leia answered through the pilot’s barrage of words.

Poe stopped and listened to the General as she continued. 

“My best answer to that question is that it was just _right_.”

“ _Right_?”

“Yes.”

“You’re joking, _right_?”

“Poe!”

“General, please,” the Resistance pilot implored, “I think about him constantly. I can’t help but worry about the next mission, Leia. What if something happens to him? To me? I can’t bare the thought of either losing him or dying without letting him know!”

“Oh, that’s not like you at all.” Leia’s tone had grown serious as the look in her brown eyes while she shook her head.

“And then I see him and Rose together and-”

“Ah! I’m going to stop you right there.” Leia interrupted the troubled man in front of her, raising a hand garnished with shining rings in front of her, placing it over Poe’s heart. “You’re worried because you’re jealous.”

“Jealous!? _Me_!? No, you’ve got the wrong man.” Poe laughed nervously as he tumbled over his words.

General Leia Organa did not serve in two intergalactic wars just to have some spunky, hot shot pilot assure her that he was not in denial. Of which, he very much was.

“Force help me, Poe, have you even tried talking to Finn _or Rose_ about their friendship?”

The pilot shook his head, “No.”

Leia rolled her eyes so dramatically it was easy to see how she came from the infamous Anakin Skywalker and the former Queen of Naboo Padme Amidala. She wrapped an arm around her comrade’s shoulders to lead him as they walked together. 

“Well, I think you ought to. Who knows, they may just be friends; and if that’s the case, Rose is also _your_ friend. Meaning if she knows about your feelings I’m sure she’d do a _wonderful_ job playing matchmaker.”

“I don’t know if I could- _wait_? Really?” Poe pointed to the air, moving his finger back and forth as if pointing to two invisible people standing before the two of them, “You don’t think Rose is-”

“Rose’s heart belongs to another. And Finn...”

Leia tried to find the right words. The man formerly known as FN-2187 was no doubt very special. There was no influence of the Dark side of the Force inside him. While Rey was strong and deeply connected to the Force in a was that was suitable for battle, Finn had a connection to the mystical essence that was destined to bring a lasting peace in the Galaxy. The Force-sensitive General began to train the young man and saw right away the potential greatness within him. That there was little doubt in her heart that Finn was meant to expand the means of how the Force could be used for the greater good.

She also saw how love would guide that bright destiny for the defector.

“Finn is a man whose bond with the Force is fueled by the greatest power we all can achieve and share.” Leia finally answered her younger friend.

“And...that is...” Poe questioned his superior officer further, his brown eyes pleading for an answer.

Stars, this child was thick headed! General Organa chuckled a short laugh and placed her hands on Poe’s shoulders and looked him in the eyes with the kindest stare he had ever seen her give.

“Love, Poe, love guides him.” She said with a smile that seemed to brighten the world around him. “Just as love guides you right now.” She reached up and cradled his face in her soft hands the same way his dear mother did when he was a youngling. “Go talk to him, Poe.”

The resistance pilot nodded his head and wrapped his hands around his General’s. With a newfound vigor he answered Leia “I will.” And with a bright smile and shining eyes, Poe let go of Leia’s hands and ran off to find Finn.

**

“Just talk to him. Just talk to him,” Poe repeated to himself as he tried to reassure his nerves over and over while walking at a brisk pace through the Resistance base trying to find Finn. When he could not find the former stormtrooper, Poe decided with reluctance that he should seek out Rose and ask her where he could be.

The pilot was in luck as he spotted her sister, Paige. She was at the blaster range, shooting targets as usual when he had free time from her daily duties.

“Paige!”

“Dameron! What’s got you in a hurry?”

“I’m lookin’ for Rose, any idea where she is?”

“Yeah,” Paige crossed her arms and flipped her long, straight, black hair behind her shoulder, “I saw her and Finn- Hey!? Where do you think you’re going!?”

“No time, Paige! Bye!” Poe bolted away from the blaster range towards the barracks. What if Leia was wrong about those two? The pilot did not know if his heart could handle such rejection and disappointment. 

Paige Tico watched her friend hurry away to find her sister. With her hands on her hips, one of them still holding the blaster, and a roll of her ebony eyes; she turned around and walked away in the opposite direction. Waving her arm she hollered, “Okay! Bye! Ugh, how rude!”

Poe Dameron weaved around fellow Resistance fighters as he ran to the barracks, running down the long hallways lined with doors leading to small living spaces and staircases to where Rose Tico’s room was. Stopping at the door, the pilot took a deep breath to center himself and lifted his fist to the door to knock.

“You look beautiful.”

“Finn!”

“Hold still for a second and let me-”

Poe could not take anymore of the conversation and rather than knock, the man led by jealousy grabbed the primitive door knob and turned it easily. Not thinking about how the door was unlocked, the pilot stormed into the room. Rose and Finn jumped when they saw their friend barge in like a mad man.

“Kriff!” They both shouted. Finn stood close to Rose, who wore a stunning red gown with a halter top, and two slips on the skirt that revealed her shapely legs, along with an opening on each side of her waist, exposing the taper of her vivacious curves. 

It was not the red dress, nor Finn’s close proximity to the mechanic that confused the Resistance pilot, but the mask the defector held in his hands. A simple black thing with dark red rose petals adhered in an ornate fashion.

“Finn, _Rose_ , what the kark is going on here?”

The two conspirators darted their eyes to each other before returning their gaze back to Poe.

“That’s a mask.” Poe stated the obvious.

“Yes.” Finn answered slowly.

“And that’s a dress,” the Pilot said to Rose, pointing at her outfit. “Which is lovely on you, by the way.”

“Yes,” Rose nodded with the same slow pace that matched her answer. “And thank you?”

“So,” Poe leaned back against the closed door of the mechanic’s living quarters and folded his arms across his chest. “You’re sneaking into the Canto Bight masquerade?”

“What!? No!”

“Course not!”

“That’s crazy talk!”

The pilot stared at his friends and blinked as a grin crept up on his lip. Finn and Rose surely were not expecting him to believe their blatant denial, considering he had mastered the art of sneaking his way into high class outings.

Poe Dameron was not known as the Incubus of Hapes for no reason!

“You’re both _definately_ trying to crash the masquerade.”

Rose covered her face to muffle an aggravated grunt and Finn ran his fingers though his hair that had began to dread into small ropes. The twosome had finally been caught, and they were so close with the ball only three weeks away.

Poe could see the disappointment on the mechanic’s face as she sighed grumpily thinking that her plan had been foiled. The pilot realized right away her determination behind wishing to risk everything to do what she planned. Leia was right after all, her heart was indeed captured by another. Her mole in the First Order of all people. Rose always said she was fighting in this war to save what she loved.

Or so she thought.

“To be honest I’m quite relieved,” Poe sighed as he relaxed his stance with a smug, scheming look on his face. “And here I thought I was about to find the two of you canoodling. Not plotting an infiltration mission across enemy lines!”

Rose and Finn paused and glanced at each other before laughter burst from their lungs. Rose wiped a tear from her eye with a silly smile.

“Canoodling!? Dameron, you’re too much! Finn merely found me out and decided to help.”

“Which means,” Finn crossed his arms and smirked at his pilot friend as he began to speak in a slow focused voice, “You will-”

“Yes, I will cooperate! No need for that Jedi stuff! I’m in!”

Finn was reading so much through Poe’s emotions; jealousy, confusion, relief, but what took the young apprentice of Leia Organa-Solo by surprise was love. Did Poe know Rose had feelings for the First Order General? Did he care?

“What’s you motive?” Finn asked, narrowing his eyes at Poe trying to figure out the pilot’s intentions.

“For one, you guys need a pilot, and I’m your man. For two,” Poe stared into Finn’s soulful, kind eyes with urgency, hoping the Jedi in training would know what he said next was only meant for him.

“I’m doing it for love.”


	32. The Matters of Prophets and Queens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Visions are seen by the Force-users on Ahch-To. And the Pirate Queen arrives at D'Qar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo! My power was out from Monday to Tuesday afternoon after the crazy storm that plowed through the Midwestern US and I thought I was not going to post this chapter until Friday. My family and I were very lucky as we did not suffer any damages.
> 
> Also, I'm currently writing this story's Throne Room scene and Battle of Crait in my notebooks when I'm not typing for you all. And it is a wild ride!
> 
> Again I am grateful to all of you wonderful readers! Do enjoy.

The winds of Ahch-To were whipping and howling through the island, the waves that hurled from the ocean were crashing onto rocky shores with such force that the very lands were vibrating from the collisions of water and earth. The planet roared into the cosmos that something was amiss in the Force, but what exactly, Luke Skywalker was unsure.

The Jedi master and his two students meditated on one of the many cliff edges of the island’s high ground. Their bodies, sitting cross-legged, levitated in the air as they allowed themselves to become part of the great currents of the Force.

“Something is happening far away from here. Do you both feel it?”

Rey, and Talyc concentrated on Luke’s instruction as they continued to hover over mossy earth and stone. Their combined connection to the Force caused a field of floating boulders, logs, and a few porgs to drift around them. Chewbacca kept his distance and observed from afar; as the Wookiee preferred his feet firmly planted on the ground.

“Rey, Talyc, what do you see?” Luke asked his students again, “Search your feelings and allow the Force to open your eyes.”

The apprentice and her companion in unison took a deep breath and allowed their spirits to spread thin into the Force, letting her guide the two of them through his rapid currents that crashed about in dissonance. The disturbance in the Force was not currently happening, but was an event that would soon take place. Somewhere in the black will be a battle. One where many people were going to perish. Then there were images of blood red sand beneath ash or snow. 

Talyc knew of this place, but Rey was unfamiliar with the planet she saw.

Suddenly the scavenger and the mandalorian were together on the bridge of a ship. Rey saw and recognized the Mon Calamary Admiral and many other Resistance officers. She saw a woman with violet curls and the young blonde from Han’s burial walk away and disappearing into the voids of the Force. She turned and saw Talyc standing and watching General Organa as she looked through the transparisteel panels, watching a Mega-class Star Dreadnought and its fleet of TIE fighters battling against X-wings and other Resistance fighter-class space crafts in the black. 

Overcome by the foreboding nature of the vision they were being shown, Talyc stepped to his mother’s form and began to reach out to her. Before he was close enough to touch her, Leia turned around and searched the room in desperation. Her mouth opening to speak the only word Rey and Talyc heard in the silent vision.

“Ben!?”

After that the world and the ship exploded around them. Rey and the Mandalorian screamed as they fell down to the mossy ground below; having returned to reality, they pushed themselves up and stared at each other with wide eye horror over what they saw. The scavenger’s forehead was slick with streaks of sweat as if she had just awoke from a nightmare. The fearful look in her eyes that welled with tears confirmed to Talyc that she had seen the same vision.

“Luke! Something terrible is going to happen! I- _we_ saw a great battle in space! People are going to die in droves! We have to do something!” Rey was so unnerved by what she saw her words came out fast and in short bursts. Luke could not find a break in her speech long enough for him to interject. Being troubled by his own visions, the last Jedi looked at Rey and took a cleansing breath. 

That was when he heard a small voice in the Force.

_Mother..._

Luke met his apprentice’s eyes, His own bright blue ones darted to the Mandalorian before looking back to Rey. The doe eyed stare of the scavenger’s amber brown eyes confirmed to the Jedi master that he was not alone in hearing the voice. And when she too turned to Talyc, who stood tall as he stared up at the sky, his terror betrayed his brave posture as it ripped and trembled through the Force around him. Luke’s suspicions from the very moment he met the armored warrior were realized once again to be true.

After all these years; the sleepless nights of self-loathing, and the tireless days of repentance, Luke Skywalker felt the slightest bit of ease knowing that without any doubts his only nephew had become a man of his own path. And the Path he followed was a good, and honorable one.

“Talyc,” Rey’s voice pulled the mandalorian’s gaze from the sky. Though the scavenger could not see his face, she knew behind his beskar mask that tears stained his cheeks as if she felt them fall down her own.

“M-General Organa will be among the fallen.” Talyc whispered in disbelief. “The battle we just saw will be the end of the Resistance and any hope for the Galaxy.”

“It will be the end of the Light, and all will fall into Darkness” Rey and Talyc spoke in a prophetic trance together as if the Force was speaking through them.

Luke Skywalker had seen many things throughout his years as a Jedi. But hearing the Force speak prophecy through not one, but _two_ , Force-sensitives both unnerved and intrigued the old man. Was this part of the destiny Master Yoda had told him about ten years ago? If so, the old Jedi was relieved such strength had been preserved in the Light, but how he wished the means to ensure it were different.

“It would seem that the Force requires us to aid them in preserving balance.” The Jedi informed his students, “we will have to decipher when and where these events are going to take place. We do that first. Then we make a plan.”

Rey and Talyc nodded, the very air of the planet felt ominous around them. The scavenger could feel it in her bones that terrible events were about to unfold, and she wanted to do anything in her power to stop it from happening. She began to wonder how much of her dread was her own; however, as the longer she trained with the Mandalorian, the stronger the bond they shared had become. His hopes and fears were becoming her own the closer they became as friends and something more. 

‘I’ll be alright,’ Rey heard Talyc speak inside her head. ‘Victory is life. This is the Way.’

‘I hope you’re right.’ Rey answered the Mandalorian without words spoken.

The two looked on and saw that Luke had already gained a fair distance from them. The old man desired to keep it that way as what they described was nothing like what he had seen himself. He hoped to the Maker that what he had seen was a metaphor, as he was shown through the eyes of the Force his own death; his heart pierced by the glowing red blade of his nephew’s lightsaber, and the descent of two lovers as they fall prey to the Dark side of the Force.

**

Poe, Rose and Finn walked together through the Resistance base, speaking in hushed tones about their plan to infiltrate the Canto Bight masquerade.

“First off, we need a ship, the three of us can’t all fit into my new X-wing. Which, by the way, is nothing compared to my lost love. May she rest in pieces on the sands of Jakku.” Poe said with an air of drama in his voice. According to Rose, one more flight in hyperspace and that poor ship was going to shatter to pieces anyhow. The Jawa’s pilfering the poor thing was a mercy. Finn and his mechanic friend chuckled to themselves as Poe continued to revel in his entertaining melodrama.

Finn smiled at his new friends, never in his short life had he ever thought he would be capable of friendly conversation, or having companions he could openly call friends. During his intense training regimens, the former stormtrooper and his comrades were brainwashed to do one single thing.

Kill the enemy.

Poe shook his hand as if disregarding his memories of his old ship. “Ok, we’ll get to the ship issue later. So what I wanna know is what your plan is for getting into that ball?” He raised his eyebrows at his young friend in an attempt to tease the girl.

With a smirk on her lips, Rose obliged her pilot comrade with an answer, “For your information, my contact in the First Order will have me listed as a guest.”

“Oooh, so you’re a ‘plus one. You sly devil woman you.”

“Oh, can it, pilot.” Rose blushed as she smack Poe playfully on the arm.

“So, Finn,” the Resistance pilot turned to the defector, who watched his friend in awe over how his dark curls shined a vibrant auburn in the midday sun, “what will you be doing while Rose seduces info out of the poor fool that’ll fall for her _womanly wiles_?”

“Poe!”

The pilot laughed at his young friend’s mock anger. Finn could only smile and shake his head. “I plan on using the old Solo ‘take out the enemy and wear their clothes’ tactic.” He answered as his heartbeat suddenly picked up its rhythm.

Poe Dameron gave Finn a beaming smile. The old smuggler would have been proud. Finn felt his cheeks warm up over that toothy display of joy, accented by the faint shadow of stubble along the pilot’s jawline. The former stormtrooper found him alluring. But with such elation, Finn was plagued with questions that were seeded and had taken root in his past.

Were these feelings right?

Did Poe feel the same way?

Were his readings of the Force incorrect?

What exactly were the views the Resistance had about such a relationship if he pursued?

“Finn.”

The defector was brought back to the present by Poe’s voice, that felt like the finest velvet in his ears, and a firm hand on his shoulder. Finn looked at Poe and for the first time truly saw him. And he was a beautiful sight to behold.

“Are you alright, buddy?” Poe asked as he leaned in close, Finn could smell the clean scent of fresh water and the standard regulation soap the Resistance rationed out to everyone. He shivered when the pilot’s breath gently tickled his neck.

“I-” Finn began to say in a drunken daze, intoxicated by the tanned, dark eyed man who stirred so many emotions inside him.

And there was a deafening crash that tore through the air and shook the earth of D’Qar.

The trio turned to the source of the massive sound that rumbled around them in a resounding shockwave of gnashing steel and broken stone. They followed suit with the other Resistance fighters and officers to assess the situation.

They ran at a full sprint with the rest of their comrades as the worst thoughts bombarded their minds. Was it an attack? An explosion? Has the First Order finally found them? Poe and Finn skid their feet across the gravel to stop themselves while Rose slowed herself down with a frantic stumble when the three of them saw a large ship that had crushed the nearby trees and ground deep into the fertile black dirt and green grass.

“Holy kriff! What happened here!? Whose ship is that?” Rose hollered as she stared at the wreckage. Not long after the crowd had formed around the massive transport vessel, the hatch lowered and a group of various creatures and humanoids had traveled down the gangplank. Some aided others who had been injured during some struggle that they all escaped from. The rest held blaster rifles and blaster bows in their arms, weary of the new world to which they have arrived.

They immediately lowered their weapons as soon as they saw the diverse peoples of the resistance, these visitors were not a threat. And soon General Organa was at the head of the crowd, her braids impeccable and her lavender dress perfect, as if expecting the company the ship had brought. Her face was stoic as a warrior chieftain as a short figure was the last to exit the star craft with heavy, angry stomps. As the small female drew closer, her form was more detailed. Her glass spectacles were cracked and her burgundy shirt was torn at the sleeve, her navy blue linen skirt had small burn holes, no doubt from near misses of opposing blaster fire. The small alien woman was the embodiment of rage as she approached Leia.

“Maz.” Leia said in a low voice that only the ancient woman could hear.

“Don’t you ‘Maz’ me! So help me your cowardly hermit brother better be doing his part in all this!” Maz Kanata shouted as she waved a boney finger angrily at the rebel princess. Her thin wrinkled lips were turned up in the fiercest scowl.

“He is, Rey and the Mandalorian are with him now.”

“That _boy_ better have kept his wits about him!” Maz muttered to herself about Talyc as she looked away from Leia for a flash of a second, causing the Resistance General to raise an eyebrow in suspicion. What did the Pirate Queen know about Black Beskar?

“Maz,” Leia said one more time to her old friend, “what happened?”

The Pirate queen craned her neck up to face the aging woman, her small eyes shining with tears that she desperately tried to blink away in a final act of strength.

“I’ll tell you what happened,” Maz snapped in a shaking voice full of rage and mourning. “It’s gone! We’ve lost the Castle! It’s-It’s-”

Leia Organa-Solo held back her own tears knowing the Pirate Queen would hate to see the General cry over her loss. It was bad enough the ancient woman was crying so hard that she could no longer speak. Her royal court of pirates and thieves lowered their heads, some shed silent tears over the loss of their only home. The rest held in their own heartache as their friend and queen sobbed like a child while the Resistance General pulled her into a tight embrace. If anyone knew the pain of losing everything and her home, it was Princess Leia Organa of planet Alderaan.

The Resistance stood in silence as they witnessed the distressing sight they saw for everyone knew the Pirate Queen Maz Kanata as a strong and cunning mistress of the Galaxy’s underworld. To see her so vulnerable and discouraged was harrowing.

‘The First Order is filled with monsters,’ was the only thought that consumed Finn’s mind. All he could feel was the growing resolve that the tyrannical regime needed to be stopped as he clenched his fists so tight at his sides that his nails drew blood in the palms of his hands. He trembled in anger as the force wavered around him causing the pebbles in the dirt to shift about in circles around his feet. But the Force was evasive and would not show him how the Resistance could stop the First Order, the cosmic presence only repeating Rose’s words inside Finn’s mind

_It’s not about fighting what we hate, but about saving who we love._

Stars help him, he was so uncertain.

**

Rey of Jakku was difficult to frighten, but her visions during her meditation earlier that day had consumed the young woman in fear. She begged the Force to answer her questions and explain the red soil covered in white, but the cosmic essence remained quiet and unhelpful. So the scavenger continued to sit alone on the rocky edge of the island to watch the black waters of the endless ocean waver and churn like a slumbering beast ahead of her, darkened by the veil of the night.

“You should rest,” Talyc spoke from behind her.

The wind ran its invisible fingers through the lower locks of Rey’s hair that was untied and carried it so her brown tresses flowed like silk ribbons.

“I can’t sleep,” she confessed to the Mandalorian who approached and sat beside her on the edge of the island. Talyc understood her restlessness as he felt it himself. It did not help that Luke had shut himself in his hut and had not been since the afternoon.

“What is it that troubles you most?” 

“The planet with red sand and snow.”

“Crait.” Talyc answered Rey as he gazed at the black waters that met the night sky at the horizon.

“What?”

“The planet you described. It’s called Crait. The ‘snow’ you mentioned is actually salt. It’s a desolate planet, but it’s life sustaining and possible that the Resistance has an enclave there.”

“It’s not the name of the planet that concerns me. It’s what that planet represents.” Rey stated as she shook her head, her brow wrinkled with worry as she spoke.

“What do you mean?” The mandalorian questioned. As he understood, he and his companion had been shown the same vision.

Did they not?

“It’s not what I saw, it’s what I felt.” Rey answered Talyc’s unasked question. “Even when I imagine this place in my mind now, my heart breaks.” She turned to the Mandalorian, her cheeks stained with fresh tears. “It’s as if a part of my soul is going to be ripped away from me.”

Rey released a shaking breath that struggled against a sob that was caught in her throat, “Talyc, I don’t want to be alone again.”

The desperation and terror in her voice shook the mandalorian to his core. He reached out and pulled the scavenger into his chest to hold her close before he pulled away just enough to take her face in his armored hands and wipe away her tears with his thumbs. Damn the Force and the games she played! He would have captured her lips with his own if he was not obstructed by his buy’ce. 

Talyc never realized how much he craved Rey, the scavenger of Jakku, until he stared into her pleading amber eyes that told him through the Force to never leave her. He would give her the entire Galaxy if he had the power. But the only possession he had to offer was himself.

Perhaps that was all she really wanted.

“Rey, I don’t know what’s going to happen. But know that you’re not alone any longer. So long as I’m alive, Oya-ika, you never will be.”

The scavenger blinked and more tears rolled into his gloved hands. She reached up and her hands held onto the back of his helmet so she could pull the mandalorian close, touching the painted beskar mask to her forehead. She spoke and assured Talyc in a quiet voice under the moonlight.

“Neither are you.”

Talyc felt his skin prickle as every faint hair rose with a shiver upon hearing those three words. Together they sat reveling in the intimacy of the moment as the mandalorian pull her closer in his arms. Begging the stars that watched them to ensure that he could keep his promise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to make a note that the next chapter will have content warnings for transphobia and misgendering as there is a Trans original character who will make their first appearance.
> 
> I will try to arrange it so that the triggering writing can be passed over for any readers that may become uncomfortable in a way where the flow of the chapter is not hindered. 
> 
> Until next week.


	33. The Conflicts of Soldiers and Peace Keepers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke is visited by an old friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to say first that this chapter is dedicated to all trans people who have dealt and fought for the right to be themselves. I see you and I love you. And to allies who stand by in support, never stop what you're doing. Your love and support is their/his/her hope. 
> 
> That's what these stories are all about isn't it?
> 
> Also it is my birthday! And I am excited to post and share with you all on a fun day like today. (I'm old hag at ripe age of 33 lol. I kid.)
> 
> If transphobic language/misgendering is unsettling, the section that it happens is marked with an @ before and after. 
> 
> Enjoy.

Captain Phasma and four stormtroopers marched through the ruins of the Castle. Their plastoid armors shined in the morning sun while reflecting the flicker of nearby flames, casting the illusion that the First Order soldiers were glowing like saints of destruction on the surface of Takodana.

“AC-0820.”

“Yes, Captain?” A feminine voice answered.

“See to it that there are no survivors. If anyone is found alive, I want them interrogated immediatly."

The stormtrooper AC-0820 did not reply.

“AC-0820. I expect an answer.”

“Yes, Captain,” the white armored soldier finally spoke, “I will search the area and inspect all casualties.”

@

“That’s a good girl.” Phasma cooed to the trooper before the soldier marched off and disappeared into the pillowing smoke and smoldering rubble.

“I wish that one would accept her womanhood. Such a waste of strength to call herself a man.”

The three stormtroopers who remained with their Captain were silent out of fear rather than obedience. They never agreed with her views in regards to their friend and comrade. Certainly not TC-0501 who tightened his grip on the barrel of his blaster rifle with rage. Having grown too tired of his brother’s ridicule years ago while in basic training.

“JT-1226, LL-1108, you’ll assess the western sector of the area,” Phasma ordered the very large stormtrooper who was accompanied by a petite one with a lithe build. She then turned to the last, “TC-0501.”

The last stormtrooper relaxed the grip on his rifle and stood at attention awaiting orders.

“Make sure that you _sister_ doesn’t do anything rash. I know how _she_ gets about being told who _she_ is.”

TC-0501 remained at attention, his silence arising the same frustration in Phasma that AC-0820 sparked by committing the same rebellious action.

“Do I sense insubordination from you, TC-0501?” Phasma’s voice was cold enough that her very breath could condense frost on the stormtrooper’s plastoid armor.

“No, Captain. I’ll assist AC-0820 as instructed.”

“Then I suggest you be on your way.” The Captain ordered in a voice that somehow grew colder with every word before she marched away to further inspect the destruction the First Order had wrought on Takodana.  
@

TC-0501 had finally found his brother AC-0820 as he sauntered through the jagged rubble and upturned earth, the remains of the Castle’s patrons painted the broken stones that surrounded him in an abstract pattern of various colors. 

Mostly red. But all of it blood.

“AC,” TC-0501 hollered as he marched to his brother at a slow pace. “You, alright.”

“No.”

“Is it because of the Captain?”

“It’s not just that,” AC-0820 answered. His voice was that of a woman’s, but TC-0501 had always known that the heart that beat within his brother’s feminine form was that of a man’s. “Just look around us! This _feels_ wrong.”

TC-0501 did as his brother told him, he observed the dead and the broken world that surrounded them. The stormtrooper sighed and placed a hand on his brothers shoulder. “You need to be careful about talking that way,” He told AC-0820, “The others will think you’re a traitor. Like FN-2187.”

AC-0820 was about to snap back an answer but he and TC-0501 heard the faint tumble of rocks nearby.

“Help,” a meek voice whispered from a pile of rubble. The two stormtroopers crept to the source of the whimpering cries. As they approached, they found a young Twi’lek woman whose legs were crushed under the Castle’s mossy stones. Her violet eyes were dark due to her large pupils, the poor creature was in shock from her injuries and possibly bleeding out. Her light blue skin was pallid and powdery, most likely due to blood loss.

But the beautiful fool was still alive. 

“I can’t help you,” AC-0820 stated through his soft melodic voice, a voice that brought him grief and suffering. He refused to try and hid it; however, because he was born with a voice that soothed his comrades with song when they were tired and beaten, one that told wild, carefree stories to young recruits to try and calm the fears they felt after being ripped from their homes. A voice that both did, and did not, define him. “Because you’re alive, your fate may be worse than death.”

“Why are you talking with her?” TC-0501 whispered with anger, but his question was ignored by his brother.

“Then, young man, please don’t let them take me.”

AC-0820 raised his blaster rifle and aimed the weapon at the Twi’lek’s chest. His brother grabbed the barrel and pointed it to the sky.

“The kriff are you doing!? The orders are to bring them in alive!”

“For what!? So Ren can do to her what he did to the scavenger from Jakku!?” AC-0820 barked back at his younger brother.

TC-0501 paused, remembering how the leader of the Knights of Ren had left that young girl, barely a woman, broken and muttering to herself In the interrogation room. Somehow the scavenger of Jakku had pulled through as she and her team of a Wookiee, the Resistance pilot Poe Dameron, FN-2187, and a Mandalorian escaped in a blaze of destruction that ultimately destroyed Starkiller.

“You kill her,” the stormtrooper growled a warning to his brother, “and Phasma will-”

“Will what? _Kill me_!? Phasma does that every time she take it upon herself to _reassign_ who I am As a person! So don’t think for one second that the results of _my_ conscience will damn me!”

AC-0820 ripped the rifle from his brother’s grip, his shoulders bobbling due to his heaving, ragged breaths.

“If this near-human can see who I am without seeing my face, despite this damned voice, I’ll risk my life to offer her mercy.”

“The Force. Makes you. Kind. And noble.” The Twi’lek gasped the small sentence between hitching breaths What she said next brought tears to AC-0820’s eyes beneath his plastoid helmet.

“You are. A good man. Allaster.”

Both stormtroopers stared at each other in shock. How did this woman, a stranger, know so much about AC-0820?

“How do you know my name? You mentioned the Force, what is that?. _Who are you_?”

“Like you. I am no one.” She swallowed hard and winced in pain, baring shining white teeth stained with blood. “And though. The Jedi. Are dead. The Force. Still lives.”

The Stormtrooper stood still as death as he listened to the Twi’lek’s testimony. A series of feelings rushed through AC-0820 and all of them proclaimed the same answer. That she was speaking the truth.

The stormtrooper AC-0820, known to very few as Allaster, aimed his blaster rifle once more to the Twi’lek’s heart.

“I’m sorry,” He whispered.

“You are. Forgiven. May the. Force be. With you.”

The Twi’lek closed her eyes and a content smile curled on her thin lips. She welcomed death like an old friend when Allaster shot a bolt of plasma through her chest.

War was disgusting.

So was the gnawing feeling that began to grow in AC-0820’s chest.

**

The last Jedi stood alone in the First Temple. He gazed at the warm limestone walls and took a deep breath to center his emotions and regain his sense of logic. He focused on the scent of the clean water that trickled from above, losing himself in the sight of the rings that wavered on the shallow water that covered the mosaic in the center of the empty room.

“You’re troubled, Luke.” An echoing soft voice spoke. A familiar voice full of love and flooded the old man's heart with nostalgia.

Luke Skywalker turned around to spot the blue aura of his first teacher, Master Ben Kenobi, standing behind him. But no longer was he the grizzled old man the Jedi remembered, but a younger, more presentable one with a well groomed beard and longer hair.

“Ben,” Luke sighed with relief, then shook his head in consternation. “Dark times are coming. And I fear we won’t be able to stop it this time.”

Ben Kenobi walked to Luke with silent footsteps. He frowned upon seeing his once bright eyed and adventurous Luke now just as disgruntled and brooding as the long gone Jedi Master himself. But a smile grew through his well trimmed beard betraying the old Jedi’s poised demeanor.

“Is it truly the Dark Side you fear or the younglings?” Ben Kenobi’s eyes gleamed at Luke as his smile broadened.

Luke exhaled and looked out at the sun that peaked through the single window temple's Western wall, “I grow weary that I cannot tell the difference.”

The ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi, the namesake of the living Jedi Master’s nephew, nodded and sat down along the edge of the mosaic.

“Humor an old man and sit with me, Luke.”

The scruffy old Jedi complied with the old Jedi who ironically looked decades younger, and sat down beside his first master’s spirit. He hunched forward to rest his arms on his knees as he opened his heart to his old friend.

“All these years, Ben, I cut myself off from my friends, family, and even the Force. Believing I had done the right thing by committing such a grave sin.” Luke’s voice was small and meek, it reminded Ben Kenobi of his apprentice’s father years ago. “I fear it all might have been in vain.”

“Hmm.” The Jedi ghost hummed.

“ _‘Hmm’_? That’s all you have to say?”

Ben laughed and patted Luke’s shoulder. Though he was an apparition of the Force, his touch was faint, but felt nonetheless. “You’re so much like your father! Always expecting answers so soon!” His laughter dimmed and his tone more solemn, “Tell me, Luke, are you afraid your nephew is like him?”

“Ben,” Luke turned his head up to his first master, “I _know_ he is like him.”

“Well, you are correct. Talyc is strong willed, intuitive,” He chuckled and shook his head, the glimmer in his eyes telling Luke that he was remembering something wonderful from days long passed, “and an absolute fool around the woman he loves.”

Luke grimaced at his master, his bright blue eyes stern as the teacher he was, “Rey knows the rules of attachments.”

“But does the lost girl from Jakku know the power that is Love?” the older man’s retort was calm and kind but conveyed the great importance of his words. He had been dead for thirty years and somehow, Ben Kenobi still had lessons to teach. Luke Skywalker’s eyes softened after thinking about what he had heard.

Perhaps the old man was onto something.

“I’m not sure, Ben. Talyc and Rey, when they are together, their bonds with the Force are so similar I have to open my eyes to tell them apart! My nephew is not who he was a decade ago, sure, especially around the girl.” Luke scratched his beard as he thought carefully about his next words. “It’s as if a piece of him that was struggling and uncertain during his youth is finally at ease.”

Ben Kenobi smiled, “Love and the Force is like a poem,” the ghost narrated to his apprentice. “Anakin and Padme, Satine and _myself_ , your nephew and the Scavenger Rey of Jakku, and, even _her_ grandparents. So similar in spirit, but always complimentary of their dualities. Opposites attract, if you will.”

Luke furrowed his brow, he was never told about this Satine. Just who exactly was she and how did she capture Obi-Wan’s heart of all people?

Ben raised his eyebrows and smirked, “You know, Luke, rather than brooding about it, you could just _ask_ me about her.”

Luke scoffed at his master’s intuition and wit. “Alright then, old man, who was Satine?”

Ben Kenobi turned to look at the sunshine remembering with a smile, “Satine Kryze was the Duchess of Mandalore during the Clone Wars. She was a champion of peace, but some more war faring Mandalorians did not agree with her ways. Satine was strong as she was beautiful; a warrior in her own right.” His smile faded and his eyes lowered, remembering the heartache from years ago. A sting that never seemed to ebb with time, even death could not ease such loss.

“As fate chose to be cruel. The moment she professed her love, for me, she not long after died in my very arms.” 

“Hmph, a Jedi and a Mandalorian in love. How intriguing.”

“Is it though?” Ben glanced at his apprentice, the son of his best friend, “For two people who believe in loyalty and honor to find a way to each others hearts? It only seems predictable for them to fall in love, and be devoted to one another. Satine and myself; the scavenger and my namesake, I assure you they and _we_ were not the only ones.”

Luke’s forehead wrinkled as he pondered over his master’s speech. He could not help but think of his father’s descent into darkness because of his desperation to save his mother.

“But what if they were to end the same way as my mother and father?”

Ben Kenobi sighed and shook his head, “Your father, though he loved your mother, was flawed. His love was like a rancor’s teeth tearing at his heart. Such a painful type of love, one that would drive lesser men to madness, had made Anakin vulnerable. Your padawans; however, are approaching their feelings the same way one sees a vast ocean or the night sky for the first time. They are pensive, curious, but above all, _cautious_. Learn from them, Luke, those two are quite special.”

His master was right, Rey and Talyc Solus, _Ben Solo_ , were indeed unique. Their strength and their bond with the Force, as well as each other, was unlike anything the last Jedi had ever seen. Maybe the Mandalorian was correct about his understanding of the Force. That the two sides of the Force were not at odds, but coexisting in a delicate balance that had been warped throughout countless generations by a severe misunderstanding.

“Luke,” Ben Kenobi spoke, bringing the old man yet again out of his thoughts, “I think it may be time to let your past follies go.”

The last Skywalker in name sighed. He wanted to nod and agree with his oldest and dearest friend. But Luke himself was unsure if he was ready to do so.

“Luke?”

The last Jedi turned to the open doorway of the temple to see Rey standing alone, watching her teacher sitting with someone. But who, she could not see.

She smiled in that glowing toothy way she did when she was curious. For someone who endured the strife of Jakku, the girl still had a shining spirit. “Who are you talking to?” She asked.

Luke turned to where Obi-Wan was just sitting seconds before, only to see no one beside him. The old man laughed hard enough that his shoulders shook.

“I _was_ talking with an old friend, but it seems I’m now alone. Is there something you’d like to talk about? This seems to be the best place at the moment.”

Rey exhaled and walked to where Luke sat and took a seat next to him. She placed her hands on her lap and picked at her short nails.

“Truth is, I’m worried about the visions I keep having. And I don’t know if I should try to interpret what I’m seeing, or if I should observe them literally.”

Luke straightened his back and exhaled. Leave it to Rey to ask the harder questions. “Unfortunately I don’t have that answer. That is how the Force likes to play their game. But listen to me when I tell you that you must to be careful, Rey, my father fell prey to such a spell. And I nearly did too.”

“Nearly? Your father? What do you mean?” Rey questioned her teacher with an arched brow and a pursed lip.

“According to my first master, Obi-Wan, Anakin Skywalker had envisioned my mother, Padme’s, death. The fear of losing his wife drove my father to desperately find a means to prevent it, but in the end, his madness was what destroyed her. Some say she died of a broken heart, but Ben believed my father unknowingly stole her life force to save himself after their battle on Mustafar.”

“Ben?” The scavenger raised an eyebrow and questioned him a second time.

Luke stared at her for a moment before he realized why she seemed confused, “Oh!” He shrugged and waved his hand “Ben Kenobi, my master, my father’s master. My nephew was named after him. Leia named Ben as a means to honor the hope that Obi-Wan represented to her during the war.”

Rey thought over Luke’s words, no wonder General Organa exiled the Jedi, the old man had killed the hope she had for the future. But how he said ‘I nearly did too’ in regards to visions being deceptive sparked something in her. How Luke paid close attention to Talyc when he thought no one was looking, and the way he would goad him to use the Force like a Jedi. 

“Do you know, Luke?” Rey asked, her amber eyes glimmered with specks of gold in the sunlight that entered the temple, shining down on the mosaic where they sat.

Luke Skywalker knew what the scavenger meant the moment she asked her question. But he tried to feign ignorance. “You’ll have to be a little more specific.”

“I think you are well aware of what I’m asking of you. I’m not a child.” Her voice became serious and full of resolve, she was not about to let it go.

Maker be damned!

All Luke could do was speak the truth, leaning in, the last Jedi revealed his secret.

“I do.”

Rey was not prepared to be given an answer so easily. She looked down at her hands, flabbergasted that she did not have to persuade the answer from her teacher. What was the Force plotting for the last ten years? She felt as if she had been toyed with. 

“So why are you so kind to him? I understand your regret, but-”

“But?” Luke's blue eyes shimmered with curiosity, wanting to know if he was deemed the villain in her story after such a revelation.

“It seems that you are glad you failed- not that it’s a bad thing! I think it’s great! I just think if you _did_ fail, how come you haven’t tried to finish what you- Now _why_ are you laughing!? I’m trying to get some serious answers here!”

The last Jedi chortled and snorted like a young boy, loud and slapping a hand on his knee as he leaned back. His laughter echoed through the temple, bouncing back and forth between it’s stone walls. Luke ran his metal prosthetic fingers through his beard. 

“You’re right, kid, there’s nothing funny about the questions you desire answers to. When I saw him after all these years I was simply so relieved! The truth is, I did not fail him Rey. I was in fact successful in my part of the Force’s plan.”

“And what plan would that be? To leave a young man to die alone in the desert on a far away planet? To be sliced at by the hands of the very person who was supposed to protect him!?”

Luke Skywalker of the desert planet Tattooine stared into Rey of Jakku’s eyes. The Force pressed her fingertips to his mind’s eye, showing him a vision of the girl and his nephew standing together as a beacon of balance and even life itself; casting their restoration spell throughout the Galaxy and healing the millennia old wounds that bled fresh still.

The Jedi smiled in a way that was as warm as the sunshine that spilled into the temple. “That, sadly, is not my place to say. Such is the way of the Force.” To know that the scavenger was an integral part in his nephew’s destiny, the old man wondered if maybe his recent visions of his death were all wrong. Ben, _Talyc_ , had grown up to become a good, noble man as a Mandalorian. Luke was beyond proud of the boy he loved as a son, and grateful that despite his greatest sin, his nephew somehow managed not to demand retribution.

As Luke thought of his Mandalorian nephew, the armored young man had rushed into the temple, breathing a sigh and relaxing his shoulders upon seeing his uncle and Rey.

“Well speak of the Dathomirian Nightbrother!” Luke exclaimed aloud. Rey turned to her teacher, unfamiliar with the saying while Talyc cocked his armored head slightly before shrugging off the words to focus on why he had searched for them.

“Chewbacca just received a comm a short time ago through Artoo. The Resistance will be holding a large scale conference aboard a ship called the Raddus, just outside of Crait’s orbit.” Talyc’s words sounded grim from his helmet. Luke and Rey knew his demeanor was due to the prophecy he and the scavenger saw that day. The battle in the black, the salt fields of Crait; the Force seemed to be placing his pieces on the cosmic dejarik board. Everything was falling into place.

“How large?” Luke Skywalker, returning to his old rebel ways with no effort, asked the Mandalorian.

“Every known member of the Resistance will be in attendance.”

“We have to go to Crait.” Rey added, hoping the two men would agree with her. Talyc, she knew, saw the same vision she did, and all three of them had an opportunity to intervene with fate. If that was what the Force wanted. “When will they depart?”

“In three standard days. Meaning we should leave Ahch-To tonight if we wish to get there in time to stand watch.”

Luke was the first to rise. His robes flowed around him as he walked up to his nephew. A man whom he once feared would destroy the Galaxy, only to become destined to save it. He held up his shining metal hand in the air and closed his eyes. The three stood in silence before an object twirled into the temple from the opening where the sunlight came in and made it’s home in his hand with a resounding clink of steel on steel. He held the object, revealed to be the copper hilt of a lightsaber that mirrored his own in style, out to Talyc who cautiously took it in his hand. Rey observed in silence, getting the feeling that there was much unsaid about the lightsaber and the underlying importance of giving it to Talyc.

The Mandalorian felt the light of a mother’s love embrace him as soon as he held the hilt in his hand. “Whose lightsaber is this?”

“My sister’s. I’m sure you’ve met Leia at least once or twice since getting caught up in the Resistance. If so, you know very well she is in tune with the Force. She trained for a while with great promise, but left the Jedi path when Ben was small, because she saw the death of her son at end of her journey.”

Talyc felt chills course through his body at the knowledge. His mother gave up her destiny out of protection and love, for him, and years later Luke was giving him his mother’s soul as a Jedi to continue her desire to keep her son safe. Tears welled in his obsidian eyes at the thought of his mother’s protection in the form of the sword, and how despite her struggle to show him her feelings, they were no doubt there. It was comforting, and he hoped that someday, even if it was through simple comradery, he and his mother could simply enjoy living. Together. Maybe not as mother and son, but something simple and just as soothing to their fractured souls.

“I don’t know if I can take this.” He whispered with a shaking voice to his uncle, ever so uncertain that he was worthy of something so deeply thought out, “maybe-”

“You can, and you will.” Luke interrupted, “Rey already has a blade, one that is quite familiar with wild desert hearts. But this,” the Jedi leaned in and whispered a secret to his nephew, “is a blade worthy of royalty.” He winked a bright blue eye, “Besides, shiny, you’re gonna need it.”

Luke leaned back and stepped away from the Mandalorian and he rubbed his hands together, all done with a youthful smirk on his face. “Let’s prepare your ship, tin can. We have many lives to save!”


	34. Petals, Leaves, and the Gilded Cage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose, Finn, and Poe head to Cantonica. Autumn and Flower finally meet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's the freaking Canto Bight Masquerade!!!!
> 
> The next few chapters will be taking place around the same time frame of about 24 hours. Bear with me I had a challenging time writing them.
> 
> Thank you all for reading, hope to hear from you. I don't bite😺

“Kriff! Kriff- kriffing _karking_ kriff!” Rose thought aloud to the two men at the helm of the Millennium Falcon as the Corellian freighter turbulently flew through space. Going speeds so fast the mechanic believed the ship would break apart into duristeel shreds throughout the void.

“Whose bright idea was it to fly this thing?! When’s the last time a simple diagnostic scan was even done on this hunk of junk?”

Finn and Poe fought with the controls while navigating through the black. “You gonna answer the woman, Dameron?” Finn asked the Resistance pilot with a loud yell, knowing that Poe was the one who suggested sneaking off of D’Qar in Han Solo’s infamous ship.

“Oh, c’mon! You saw how it was just sitting there collecting rust! Besides, Solo would’ve had a field day about this mission. Gambling. Disguises. Sneaking into First Order weapons trades. The old bastard’s probably smiling right now from wherever he-”

“More like grimacing with his face in his hands!” Rose shouted with a start when some sparks flew from a control panel she was trying to repair. “Ugh! No wonder Han never let me take a closer look at this mess! He knew I would’ve-”

Rose was cut off as she stumbled and tried to keep her balance, Poe had pulled the lever to launch the Corellian vessel into light speed. The pilot let out the breath he was holding, it came out as a low whistle from his lips as his shoulders relaxed. Finn immediately turned to him wide eyed in disbelief.

“You just sighed with relief!”

“No. I _whistled_ with relief.”

Rose Tico crossed her arms and listened to the men banter. She wondered how in the hell forests of Mustafar did General Solo fly the ship as long as he had without injury. The Resistance mechanic pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath.

‘Stars! These two need to just _kiss_ already!’

Finn stopped arguing with Poe and slowly turned to face Rose, his cheeks seemed to be a shade darker when the mechanic met his gaze. She knew General Organa was training him in the ways of the Force, but Rose had never realized the full extent of one’s abilities with the mystical gift. 

The two friends squinted their dark umber eyes at each other in a silent battle of wills. Poe noted the subtle confrontation, but was oblivious to the reasons why it was taking place.

“You two alright? You both seem tense.” The pilot stated as he pointed a finger back and forth between his crush and his comrade. When Rose and Finn realized that their friend had no inclination as to why they were giving each other perturbed glances, the two began to laugh aloud over Poe’s comment and confusion. For it was not due to innocence that the man was unaware, only blissful ignorance.

“Am I missing something here? Are you two having one of those ‘Force things’?”

Finn and Rose’s laughter grew into a knee slapping ruckus. Seeing that he would get nothing out of them, Poe just smiled and shook his head. His dear friends were strange but humorous. That was what life was all about though, was it not? Odd friends and the frequent hearty laugh?

“Okay, okay, get it all out. Cantonica is only a few short hours away, and this masquerade is tomorrow night. I think it’s high time we hash out a solid plan.” Poe said with a small hint of earnest in his voice.

The Resistance pilot was right. A plan was needed and it had to be flawless. Any mishap during the secret mission the three of them had pieced together over the last few weeks could be detrimental to the entire Resistance. Either by losing one of the best mechanics and pilots the rebel faction had, or worse; if the First Order learned the location of the conference, all hope could be lost.

Rose brought her hand to her chin, tapping her lips with her index finger as she began to brainstorm and trouble-shoot through every possible scenario she could think of at record speeds. Before Poe and Finn had a chance to speak, the genius mechanic snapped her fingers and with a stomp of her foot, shouted with gusto and confidence, “I got it! Alright, boys, I think I’ve got the perfect plan!”

**

“Rose, are you _sure_ about this?” Finn asked the Resistance mechanic from outside the lavish refresher in the hotel suite that the two Resistance fighters booked the night before. “I mean, I was in the First Order, and I’m telling you that posing as an escort is _dangerous_. You don’t know the kind of men that will be at this thing.”

“You’re right. I don’t,” Rose confirmed to the defector as she zipped up the back of her dress. ‘Thank the Maker! So glad I chose an open back dress!’ “But I _do_ know Autumn. I trust him.”

“Hux.” Finn corrected his friend. The wounds the First Order General had inflicted on the young man on the other side of the door were deep despite healing at a snail’s pace.

“I _trust_ him!” Rose told him from behind the gilded door. Now that her dress was on she needed to style her hair with the thermal curler that was complimentary with the expensive room. Just who the kark did Poe know that was so willing to let him stop in and book a room at one of the finest hotels Canto Bight had to offer whenever he desired, no questions asked? The younger Tico concluded that she would rather not know, lest the pilot ramble about a long ago story of how he wooed a man from Hapes who was likely a very wealthy noble woman’s husband. 

Enough about Hapes!

The former spice runner turned Resistance recruiter had many secret and lucrative connections. All of which Rose was quite content being oblivious to.

By the time Rose had decided Poe Dameron’s wealthy liaisons were better left a mystery, her hair was been styled in thick black ringlets that fell just above her shoulders. The tomboy mechanic could hardly recognize the elegant woman in the mirror as herself. Her full lips, painted blood red. The delicate eyeliner that accented the lovely shape of her eyes. The rouge that further defined her high round cheekbones. 

This was Flower Queen, not Rose Tico. 

Before she called the woman in the mirror a liar and a fraud, Rose thought about Finn’s revelation weeks ago. That her Autumn Leaves was none other than the notorious First Order General, Armitage Hux, and how he too was playing the same dangerous game. That he would tonight take her hand and dance the same charade among all of his present peers, subordinates, and superiors. 

They were about to be two womp rats in a gilded cage full of Loth-cats and wolves.

Rose Tico straightened her back and squared her broad, strong shoulders. She took a cleansing breath as she pulled the black mask adorned with Rose blossoms and petals that matched the color of her dress from its place on the smooth marble countertop, and applied the finishing touch to her elaborate disguise.

Finn sat on the edge of what was easily the largest, most extravagant, bed he had ever seen as well as the softest bed he had ever touched. The whole room was made up of luxury that the former stormtrooper had ever seen. Everything was gilded trim and wall paper, the carpet was a royal shade of red that complimented the gold that surrounded him. The furniture was stained and polished Arkanian cedar ornately carved into flowing floral patterns only accomplished by a master woodsman. 

His eyes darted to the ‘fresher door as it slid open. Everything in the room paled in comparison to the dazzling image of his friend and fellow rebel as she stepped into the suite in her high heeled shoes. The defector stared at Rose whose beauty managed to take his breath away.

“You look beautiful, Rose. Hux better consider himself lucky to be seen with you.”

There was a brief, awkward silence between the two until Rose chortled and waved her hand at Finn.

“Oh stop! I feel ridiculous!”

The Jedi in training smiled and shook his head. Regardless of the dress, the make-up, and the masks she wore, Rose Tico was still her wonderful, quirky, amazing self. Modest, yet mold-breaking.

Finn stood up and dusted off the jacket Poe gave him before he and Rose left the Millennium Falcon the previous night. The pilot’s word still echoed in his mind.

_“Take it. For good luck.”_

He held out his hand to Rose, “Well, m’lady, I believe it’s time for your grand debut.”

The rouge on Rose’s cheeks darkened as she began to blush beneath the thin veil of her make-up. The Queen of the Flowers took her friend’s hand and when she was close enough, linked her arm with his at the elbow.

“Alright, Finn, let’s turn this city upside down!” She said with a sly grin as they slid open the hotel room door.

**

“General, you seem nervous. Is everything alright, sir?” Lieutenant Mitaka questioned his superior officer as they stood outside of the venue where the masquerade and countless weapons trade negotiations for the First Order were about to take place. Hux ignored him as he anxiously fiddled with the cuffs of his black tuxedo sleeves and brushed off any speck of dust as soon as it landed on his suit. Every few seconds the General would compulsively adjust his black tie and place his fingertips on the orange, red and auburn leaves that decorated his black mask covering the upper half of his face. 

Of course he was a nervous wreck! The fool was unable to hold still, and at any moment his contact with the Resistance was going to show up. Not even to exchange information. The two of them thought it was a logically sound idea to meet at one of the First Order’s high profile planets, during one of the regimes regular weapons exchanges, to go on a kriffing _date_! Hux steadied his breathing and placed his hand on his breast pocket, pinned there was an ornate boutonniere of a Malreaux rose, one of such a deep red hue it almost matched the black of his suit.

The redhead turned to his Lieutenant and raised his eyebrows while he straightened his back. “Yes. Yes! I’m perfectly fine!” The general told his fellow officer with quick fumbling words that cracked at the end of his sentence. “You know how these gala’s are, so much pomp and judgment in one room can tend to be stifling. Especially for a bastard such as myself. I always tend to hear at least one comment about how I should be with the kitchen staff instead of on the ballroom floor.” He sighed thinking about how he would also be accompanied by a survivor of the Otomok system; his heart felt heavy at the thought of what the savage animals in suits and dresses would say about his dear Flower if they knew. “Status quo if you will, Mitaka.”

“Of course, sir,” Mitaka stood with his back straight and his hands behind him as he observed the General from his peripheral, He noticed the deep red rose on his breast and the foliage that decorated his mask. Flowers and leaves seemed so out of character for the General who spent all of his time around the cold steel hulls of space ships. A man who seemed to revel in the inorganic and technological. So curiosity got the better of him. 

“ _Ahem_ , General?”

“ _Yes_ , Lieutenant!?” Hux turned to Mitaka with a glint of frustration in his green eyes over his fellow officer’s nosey questions.

“M-my apologies. I-I was only curious, why a rose?”

The First Order General was taken off guard by the Lieutenant’s inquiry. Truth be told, the rose on his breast was a simple impulse buy when he passed the flower shop on the way to the venue. The deep red petals in bloom had caught his eye and before he knew what he was doing, Armitage had asked the young woman at the counter how many credits for the boutonniere and the exchange was made. When the rose was given to him in a clear plastoid container, all the General could do was think of his Flower Queen.

“No reason, Dopheld,” Hux answered the man beside him, “it simply felt right for the occasion.”

“I see.” The First Order Lieutenant conceded and they stood in silence outside of the venue once more.

“Excuse me?”

Hux froze when he had heard the familiar, clear voice behind him. His lungs seized and his stomach flipped the way it had the first time he experienced a jump into hyperspace as a child.

“Yes, ma’am, can I help you?” Dopheld politely asked the unknown woman after he had turned around to greet her, causing the General to feel the pang of jealousy spike in the center of his brain.

“I don’t know if you can help me, but I’m looking for an Armitage Hux.” The Flower Queen answered the Lieutenant.

There was no way!

How could she know!? 

Armitage cast such thoughts aside and turned around to see, what he believed, was the most stunning woman known in the entire Galaxy Wearing a mask made of rose petals and a gorgeous red dress that would make Mustafar’s lava streams look cool and dull in her presence. 

The Queen of the Flowers was more beautiful than General Hux had ever imagined.

“I- _I’m_ General Armitage- I mean Hux- _General Hux_ , my dear.” Dear maker, the First Order General was stammering like a damned fool!

Autumn Leaves took one step forward as he tried to compose himself. He was tall and slender, what Rose could see of his face was fair like fresh snow. But what enamored the Mechanic most about the man before her was his hair. She never knew hair could grow in such a unique shade of red. It was brushed back and styled with a matte pomade. Rose wanted run up to him and run her fingers through the fiery strands, but she remembered where she was, and who she was in the presence of; she too needed to compose herself like her companion.

“General,” Mitaka looked at the man whom he personally felt to be his friend with a gleam in his eyes, “do you know this woman?” 

“No- I’m an escort he hired for this evening,” The Flower Queen spoke up, causing Lieutenant Mitaka raise and eyebrow and cock his head at his superior officer.

“An _escort_ , General?” Mitaka asked blinking his eyes with curiosity. He never realized his friend was so full of surprises.

Hux’s pale gaunt cheeks soon became red as his hair, “Yes, Dopheld, _I_ hired and escort! A man does get lonely out in the black, you know!”

“I’m sorry, I meant no disrespect.”

“Oh no? Then stop asking questions you don’t want to know the answers to. Certainly not with your commanding officer, _Lieutenant_!”

“Yes, sir,” Dopheld sighed. The lovely woman in red giggled to herself with a hand over her mouth. The Lieutenant tried to hide his smile. He never saw the General as a man to have interests in women that were kind and lively. Dare he think it, but his friend had wonderful taste.

The General offered his hand to his Flower, a wave of serenity washed over the redhead as the masked woman’s eye’s lit up as if she had never been offered such chivalry. He was honored to be the first, and smiled with his emerald eyes as his Queen linked her arm with his and he walked with her into the venue.

Where Autumn Leaves led the Flower Queen was so bright, sparkling with gilded wallpaper and trim, along with a stunning chandelier that hung in the center of the ceiling made from nova crystals and other rare jewels expertly cut by an unknown artisan.

The ballroom was filled with round tables covered in white table clothes embroidered with gold lace. At the center of all each of the glamourous tables were extravagant abstract glass centerpieces surrounded by five ivory white dinner plates decorated with gilded gold edges. Beside each of them were sets of solid gold cutlery placed on top of white dinner cloths embroidered with the same gold lace patterns as the table cloths they sat on.

Despite the breathtaking gala scenery, Rose Tico could not help but feel sick knowing that the very place where she stood existed solely for arms trades and other nefarious sales that ensured the rich’s wealth while robbing those less fortunate of their livelihoods, homes, and even their lives. She was brought out of her thoughts by a large warm hand on her forearm. Rose turned to see Armitage gaze down at her with soft, green eyes that mirrored her discomfort.

“My apologies, Flower, for the circumstances of our meeting.” His voice was calm but quiet as he leaned close to speak with her.

“No,” Rose whispered to her companion, “I should be stronger than this. I need to put my feelings aside.” A fire ignited in her ebony eyes, “For the mission.”

“The mission?” Hux asked with a tilt of his head.

“Yeah,” the Flower Queen scoffed at the masked man beside her. “We’re here for the intel.” She whispered again, low enough to that only he may hear.

“Oh! Yes! _Intel_!” The General huffed as he straightened his back. Grateful that his mask hid his blushing cheeks. Relaying information was the last thing on his mind, all the Arkanian desired most was standing next to him with the sweetest smile across the most kissable red lips he had ever seen.

Armitage gave the rebel incognito a devilish smirk before leaning in and whispered in his Flower’s ear with a seductive timbre, “If information is what you need, love, look no further and begin to mingle.”

Rose’s cheeks darkened as his breath grazed the shell of her ear. She could smell his woody cologne and feel the warmth of his cheek next to hers. Both of which made her shiver as if she were cold, but she felt as if her body was in flames.

Maker, since when were men so charming!? Was this normal? 

Rose Tico felt as if she were about to faint, the small orchestra in the corner of the ballroom began to play a sweet sounding string symphony. A light, airy tune that was perfect for a simple waltz. Hux pulled himself away from the Queen of the Flowers and released her from his arm so that he could bow and extend his hand when he rose back up.

“My Flower Queen, would you have me for this dance?” 

‘Maker, help me!’ The mechanic in disguise screamed in her head as her heart pounded against her ribs.

Unable to speak, Rose nodded and took the gentleman’s hand so he could lead her to the dance floor at the center of the massive shining room. And so the Leaves of Autumn led his Queen of the Flowers in a beautiful dance whole surrounded by the most wretched of the Galaxy’s monsters.


	35. Old Armors, New Weapons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn infiltrates the First Order on Cantonica. Talyc Nd Luke have an enlightening heart to heart. Rey finds a gift in her cabin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! 
> 
> Apologies for posting late. My daughter has been hijacking my laptop to watch Legend of Korra. So taking time to type has been tough this week. 
> 
> I will say that as I post this the most difficult section of the story for me to write has been written. (I have written multiple chapters ahead of what is posted. Which is why updates are so consistent). I wanted to share that with everyone because I am determined to see this story to the finish.
> 
> Translation notes are at the bottom.

The dock yard for the First Order’s Star Destroyer envoy was dark, only lit by the scarce towering glow panels that stood like thin ziggurats in the night. The occasional stormtroopers marched in formation to ensure security, their synchronized steps were a harmonious, vibrating heartbeat of the mechanical monster that was the wedge shaped starcraft carrier and massive transport.

In the shadows of Cantonica’s night , Finn crept around cargo bins and various downed TIE series aircrafts to inspect his surroundings. If Rose was working under cover, the defector thought it only fair to also stand within enemy lines in the guise of comradery.

The apprentice of Leia Organa-Solo had reached the dimly lit gangplank of the Star Destroyer and he overheard the conversation between two lone troopers standing guard at the ship’s entrance. He decided to eavesdrop and hear what they had to say to one another.

“Ugh, I hate these things.”

“What? Night watches?”

“No, these stupid galas. All the officers get so drunk and obnoxious.”

“All while our work is never done. Right?” The other stormtrooper added sarcastically, causing them both to chuckle quietly in the near empty dockyard.

“Yeah!” The first stormtrooper agreed with gusto, “When the kriff do _I_ get to go for a night on the town!?”

The two soldiers laughed off their frustrations, but Finn understood and knew firsthand how miserable they were beneath the dismissal of their strife. They were all bodies waiting to be disposed of. Cast away by the First Order like refuse without a memorial for their fellow comrades to mourn if they did not survive.

The second trooper shrugged their shoulders and shook their head with a sigh. “I’ll be right back. I have to do a parameter check. Should be about twenty minutes,” the soldier announced before they marched down the ramp with rhythmic steps.

“Alright. Though I doubt you’ll find anything other than some drunkards loafing about.” The first called out down the ramp.

“Fine by me, I’ll just send them on their way. I’m not the Captain.”

“Ugh! Don’t mention that devil woman!”

Another hearty laugh erupted from the stormtroopers as the one went on their scheduled patrol and disappeared into the night. It was Finn’s chance to carry out his only opportunity to obtain a disguise. There was no way to creep up the gangplank ramp unnoticed so Finn just walked into the light of the dockyard and meandered up the duristeel structure. The trooper jumped back and pointed his rifle at the young man, immediately recognizing him as the notorious, not to mention brave, FN-2187; since known as the defector and traitor of the First Order.

“Stand back!” The strormtrooper shouted into the night, “I know who you are, FN-2187!”

The Jedi apprentice casually raised his hands with open palms as he channeled the Force around him, asking them to guide him through his interaction before he spoke slow in a calm and sincere voice. 

“I mean you no harm.”

The trooper paused for a moment, then, much to Finn’s relief, he lowered his weapon and relaxed. “You mean me no harm?”

“I need _your_ help.” The padawan told the soldier in white.

“You need _my_ help?”

Finn nodded and continued to take slow steps forward up the gangplank. Though the Jedi in training could not see the trooper’s face, his Force-signature was placid like a lake at dawn.

“I need to trade clothes with you. And you will hide here in the hangar until I find you later.”

Without hesitation the stormtrooper placed their rifle on the hangar floor, reached for their helmet and removed it to hand it over to his former compatriot.

“Here,” the soldier said with a smile, Finn had to hide his bewilderment over how well such a simple use of the Force worked, “I’ll trade my armor for your clothes. And I’ll hide here until you come back later.” The young man, most likely the same age as Finn, with blonde curls, hazel eyes, and beige skin obliged, seeming more than glad to help.

Finn smirked and patted the unmasked stormtrooper on the plastoid pauldron. “Thanks, friend, I owe you one.”

The trooper smiled, showing his dimpled that peaked through his cheeks as he nodded with eagerness to help. Within minutes they exchanged clothes and before he placed the helmet on his head, Finn looked at the young blonde who seemed quite proud of his change of attire.

“Rebel clothes look pretty good on you, cadet.” he said with a grin.

“They do! Don’t they? I’ll stay here and hide until you come back and find me.”

The Jedi was thoroughly impressed with how well the mind trick worked. Part of him wondered if he was merely tapping into hidden desires of the man before him rather than controlling his mind. Finn placed the helmet over his face and wondered just how many men and women were just like him in the First Order? Just how many people wanted to be free?

“That's the plan, now lay low and I’ll be back as soon as I can!”

**

The Mythosaur slowed down out of hyperspace and coasted just outside of Crait’s orbit. The planet was a barren and dull orb floating in the black. On the other side of the planet, the Raddus lingered in the void as shuttles approached from all directions. Rey stood from the co-pilot’s chair and stretched until her back and shoulders cracked and popped.

“So. What now?” She asked her teacher and her friend.

“We wait,” Talyc answered the scavenger.

“I think I may go to my cabin for a while. If you need me, you know where to find me.”

“Of course,” Luke added while he sat on a stool in the corner of the helm of the ship, “and Rey, if you see Chewie and his little friends, tell him metal head has ration packets for all of them.” 

Much to the Wookie and the Mandalorian’s dismay, some porgs had become stowaways aboard the Mythosaur when they left Ahch-To. During their voyage they chose Chewbacca and were frequently seen waddling after him and R2-D2 like lost children throughout the ship.

“Luubid ti te gai’e, ruug’la jag,” Talyc deadpanned as he stood from his own seat , he rolled his hidden eyes as Rey and Luke chuckled over his comment in Mando’a.

Since when did his uncle know the father tongue? Another odd moment, another addition to the long list of events that made Talyc suspicious about Luke’s reason to have done the horrible thing he did to him. 

Once Rey was out of the cockpit of the Mythosaur and past the galley the mandalorian thought it was the appropriate time to seek out some much needed answers, lest he never have another chance. 

“Skywalker.”

“Solus.”

Talyc knew Luke was mirroring his speech pattern, but he wondered if saying his last name was another intended clue that the old man knew exactly who the mandalorian was beneath his armor. He nodded to the door leading to the galley, Luke rose from his stool and sauntered to the door and stepped through after it slid open to the side. Talyc followed after him and waited until his uncle sat down at the table at the center of the galley, lacing his fingers together after resting his arms on the smooth steel tabletop. The old Jedi looked up at the Mandalorian with curious gaze, his blue eyes shined with a youthful glimmer as he waited for his nephews questions with anticipation.

“Do you...know who I am?” Talyc asked in pensive manner while he stared outside a small transparisteel window at an adjacent wall observing the salt rich planet outside. He tensed when Luke gave him his answer.

“Yes.”

The mandalorian hurried to turn around, his pulse raced under his skin and sweat began to bead on his brow behind his visor. Luke stared back at him, his eyes were softer than before, and his Force-signature swirling with compassion and, quite possibly, love. 

“You’re a notable Mandalorian. And a good friend to Rey. Most importantly, you’re a good man with a kind heart.” The Jedi nodded and thought about his next words, “A little troubled, _conflicted_ , and very lonesome, but _good_ nonetheless.”

Tears rolled down Talyc’s cheeks and he bit his lip to prevent it from quivering until it drew blood. The last person he ever expected in the entire Galaxy offered him acknowledgment of who he had become. Whether or not his uncle knew who hid behind beskar’gam, the mandalorian was pleased to hear Luke had no desires to force Ben solo out from within. 

“If your nephew...Ben...were here before you. Would you have anything to say?” Talyc held his breath as he waited for another truth that may be painful or soothing to hear.

“I would tell Ben that I love him; that not a day goes by that I don’t miss him, and that I’m sorry I failed him all those years ago.”

For a moment, Ben Solo, the son of a renegade princess and a wise-cracking smuggler turned war hero looked at his uncle, who sat in a room surrounded by walls containing Mando’a scriptures of rules and traditions. He glanced down at his armored hands, withing yet again that he was able to shed himself of his iron caccoon. But the mandalorain sighed, and turned to gaze out into the void once more.

“I'm sure you are.” His words were solemn and laced with understanding.

This is the Way.

And Family is Life.

Both statements rang true and were now conflicting with each other. Talyc felt like he was at an impasse; was he capable of forsaking one by upholding the other? Either way the mandalorian felt damned no matter the choice. The lost prince was reliving the turmoil of his father’s death all over again, and the excitement of his first Force connection with Rey. Having his hands held by his mother as she enlightened him about the history of Mandalore and the warriors of its past. 

The recent events that brought him his inner conflicts with his identity raced through his memory until all sounds and images in his head grew silent with only one voice booming throughout his skull.

_“Aliit cuyir ruriye waadas. Or’ata waadasla jaon an ve’vat. Gar ri’kir haa’taylir gar sa jag be jate’kara.”_

The voice of Tarre Vizsla echoed his wisdom and praise through the Force; a private conference unheard by Luke, who sat on the stool, his body still in the same position it had been since the beginning of their conversation. 

Talyc had not been visited by the Jedi Mand’alor since he journeyed to bring his father home to his mother. Part of the him feared that the spirit had forsaken him on the count of his insolence.

“Hey, kid.”

Talyc turned around to face his uncle. It had been so long since the Jedi addressed him with a kindness so genuine; it was welcomed with silence and grace.

“If anything happens. Promise me you’ll take care of Rey. Her path in the light will rest on your shoulders when I'm gone.”

“‘When’?” Talyc asked Luke, whose news was unsettling to hear. The old man just told him that he was expecting to die during their operation.

“Don’t let the girl know, but I don’t have a lot of time left. I have seen my death; it will happen on the Supremacy, slain by my nephew’s lightsaber.”

Forgetting who he was and to whom he was speaking, Talyc stepped forward, “That’s impossible! Ben Solo’s lightsaber was not on his body when my-” the mandalorian realized the error he nearly made, “when _they_ found him!” Talyc pointed at the Jedi while the accusation rumbled in his voice.

Luke smirked through his grizzly beard and raised an eyebrow. “You’re correct. Ben Solo’s lightsaber was left at the Temple on Yavin IV last I knew. But you were about to say ‘ _my_ ’.”

‘Kark!’

The Jedi leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees after he turned his stool away from the table. Talyc was ready for the barrage of questions; did you tell your mother? Will you ever return home? Why the name change? But instead, his uncle asked one question that caught him off guard.

“What clan took you in? If you don’t mind me asking.” The Jedi inquired the mandalorian.

“Din Djarin.”

“Hmm,” Luke leaned back and stroked his beard. “Rumor had it years ago, before Leia and I sent myself away, that there was a powerful Force-user in that clan.”

“Well, now there are two.”

“I will have to take your word for it.” The old man retorted as he stood from his seat and walked to his nephew with slow steps, “But I would like to know, how did the other train you?”

Talyc thought hard over how to answer his uncle’s question. The truth felt silly. He rubbed the back of his neck, and the mandalorian answered in a small, shy tone.

“We umm...played.”

Luke pursed his lips, “You... _played_?”

“Yeah,” Talyc felt downright ridiculous as he continued, “Tree climbing was a personal favorite.” he dropped his hand to let it sit at his hip, never in his life had he felt so sheepish.

“Humor an old man, will you? The Clan Din Djarin is roughly twenty-five years old. _You_ are-”

“Twenty-eight.”

“Hmm,” Luke hummed as he tried to remember the facts and piece together the clues in their conversation, “Lando said the Clan of Two was Din Djarin and a fifty year old. That was over two decades ago. Seems a bit _mature_ to be climbing trees like a child.”

“He was a child!” Talyc spat out without warning before he took a breath and ran a gloved palm down his buy’ce, “He _is_ a child.”

Realization dawned on the old Jedi. Recalling the immense unforgettable light of the Force ten years ago on Mandalore, only one being could be capable of such aging and connection with the Force so strong.

But _he_ was the only one.

Was he not?

Luke’s blue eyes were wide as he asked his nephew, “Just what does this seventy year old child look like?”

Talyc shook his head and shrugged, “Small, green, and his ears are the same shape as these,” the mandalorian pointed to one of the triangles painted on the side of his buy’ce. Luke Skywalker, the hero of the Galactic Civil War, sucked in a deep breath and blinked his eyes. There was no way!

“I thought he was the only one.” he said to himself with a furrowed brow.

“Pardon? Only one _what_?” Talyc asked his uncle in a whisper full of curiosity, and suspicion. Just who in the Galaxy did Luke know that fit the same description as Vod’ika?

The Jedi shrugged and dismissed the conversation with a wave of his metal hand.

“It’s nothing, just the silly ramblings of an old geezer.”

The mandalorian tilted his head, his uncertainty overwhelming his thoughts. Before he could question his uncle further the Jedi sauntered pasted him and made his escape in a graceful silence; leaving Talyc to stand alone with clenched fists.

What exactly was that old bastard hiding from him?

**

Rey had been meditating in the standard cross-legged position for minutes that felt more like hours, hovering over her bed in the cabin; her ration packets, the Skywalker lightsaber, and a very confused porg levitated around her. The scavenger hoped she would be given a glimpse of what the future entailed for Luke, Talyc, the Resistance and herself.

Sadly the Force was silent, keeping her secrets hidden behind boundless veils and riddles unsolved. Only hearing a voice that reminded Rey of both Luke and Ben, and seeing the image of a man with dark blonde curls, blue eyes, and a face that was handsome and familiar.

_“Open your eyes.”_

Rey was unsure if the voice was speaking to her or if she was being shown a memory of Jedi past. She did; however, do as instructed and opened her eyes, she gasped at the sight of a quarterstaff that floated in front of her. Unlike her lost possession, this one was made from solid wood. The scavenger of Jakku held out her hands and the staff drifted to her open palms. 

She gripped the warm, smooth weapon as it fell like a feather into her hands. Upon closer inspection the surface of the staff had uneven tints of color, both due to the grain patterns and the rings in the wood as well as what looked like slight burns. There was no shine, but the staff felt like cloth woven from Dathomiri spider silk on her calloused hardened palms; soft, light, but strong.

She stretched her legs and lowered her body down to the floor, her feet slowly lowered to the ground under the gentle care of the Force. Rey was grateful for the spacious cabin as she tested the staff with a few short forms and exercises she had taught herself as a child. All while the items and the porg still danced about the air around her.

The staff was balanced and moved through the air with speed and precision. Despite its organic origins, the handmade wooden staff was superior in craftsmanship than her self made staff constructed of found and salvaged parts back on Jakku. The only advantage her old weapon had was that it hit hard and did a fair amount of damage.

_Squawk!_

The little porg that floated throughout the cabin was pushed to and fro with each burst of air created by the swings of her staff. Its annoyed chirps and warbles pulled Rey out of her concentration.

“Oh, dear,” Rey giggled as she let go of the Force and let the creature and her possessions down to the floor with gentle ease. The porg flapped its fins and ruffled its feathers by shaking its body, making short honking sounds of frustration before waddling away on webbed feet.

Rey could not help but laugh about how animated the bird-like creature reacted to its harmless predicament. She sighed happily and returned to her forms, but stopped as something on the staff caught her eye. The scavenger gazed at the carved Mandalorian letters on the staff’s surface, realizing only one person could have made the weapon for her. Rey held the staff close to her chest where her soul swelled within with golden light. No one had ever given her a gift before, to receive one from Talyc of all people made her feel lighter than air despite her feet standing on the steel floor. 

She would have to thank the Mandalorian as soon as she saw him for bestowing her something so precious and thoughtful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Luubid ti te gai’e, ruug’la jag. - "Enough with the names old man."
> 
> Aliit cuyir ruriye waadas. Or’ata waadasla jaon an ve’vat. Gar ri’kir haa’taylir gar sa jag be jate’kara. - "Family is favored wealth. More valuable over all gold. You should see yourself as a man of luck."


	36. A Dance of Secrets and Revelation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose and Hux come to serious conclusions about Talyc Solus. Rey and Luke have a heart to heart about the Force.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone is doing well. Thank you all for reading.

_“General, I really don’t see the point of teaching ballroom dance to a bunch of rag-tag pilots and soldiers.” Poe stated with his hands on his hips and his head turned to General Organa who stood with her husband General Solo in the mid morning sun. The three officers observed the various Resistance personnel dancing haphazardly to the music that played through the air on D’Qar._

_“Any decent pilot understands that flying in formation is identical to dancing. My son taught me that when he was nine.” General Han Solo informed the Resistance pilot with his arms crossed and a grimace on his face. “Let me tell ya, these kids’ dance skills are worse than his.”_

_There was one exception; however, a young, ambitious woman named Rose Tico and her partner Jessika Pava were gracefully waltzing together throughout the tamped earth that made for a makeshift dancefloor._

_“To fully synchronize as a team and unit you must all be in tune with one another. In my early life in the Alderaan Royal Court, I never found a better way to understand this concept than dance.” General Organa explained as she instructed the young pilots and soldiers during their exercise in synergy._

Rose had never been so grateful for General Organa’s unusual training tactics as she and General Hux graced the dance floor in a flawless waltz, dazzling the other First Order officers and arms dealers who danced alongside them. The string octet concluded the song, Rose and Armitage slowed to a stop in sync with the music, gazing into each other’s eyes like star-crossed lovers united at last. Until they were pulled from their daze by an applause from behind the Flower Queen.

Rose turned around to see a woman with bronze skin and long, dark, thick hair tied in a single braid, the few loose locks elegantly fell down her shoulders in tightly coiled ringlets, one of them being streaked with silver. She wore a burgundy dress that covered her from neck to toe, her mask was simple and the same shade of red as her dress, complimenting her brown eyes that were soft, but serious. Rose knew right away this was a woman of high rank.

She smiled and approached the General and his assumed escort, she brought the masked redhead into a kind embrace that took the young woman in red by surprise.

“I see you’re still light on your feet as always, General. And your partner,” the older woman turned to Rose, “not everyday do we see anyone dancing the Alderaan Waltz so well. In fact, it’s been so long it appears I am the only one to have noticed.” she lowered her voice to a whisper so as not to gather attention from the other guests.

“Our Madam taught us well. Only the best graces and etiquette for Canto Bight’s finest patrons.” Rose gloated with a sly grin.

“Take care of this one, Armitage, she’s got moxie.” The woman smiled with full painted lips, deep dark red like her dress, as she added, “I like her.”

With a blush dusting the General’s neck he nodded, “Of course, Admiral Sloane.”

“Please, dear boy, you know that you can call me Rae.”

His blushed darkened over the Admiral’s insistence on informalities. Her kindness knew no bounds, ever since he was a small boy. 

“Yes, Rae.” The First Order General corrected himself with a smile. Rose could not help but also turn her mouth into a small serene simper. The man who stood before her was nothing like the infamous rumors the Galaxy spread like wildfires on Mustafar; he was coy and surprisingly humble, much like many in the Resistance who joined to escape the hells of abusive childhoods on trafficking planets and militarized outposts.

‘Just who exactly was Amitage Hux?’ Rose began to wonder. What happened to the man who cherished her across the stars through secret loyalties and empowering conversations under starlight? What did he have to endure? And what cursed the General to believe the First Order was the only shadow of a home he could ever know?

The only certainty Rose had was the woman who walked away in burgundy elegance seemed to be the only person willing to show any remote kindness to her Autumn.

Rose Tico realized again that she was in a den of monsters, and Armitage an unwilling and broken participant. The Resistance mechanic reached and placed a delicate hand around the General’s forearm. Hux turned to his flower and placed his hand over hers.

“Would you like to continue dancing? There’s some matters I’d like to discuss, my Queen.”

The woman in red smiled and gracefully nodded, “Only if you tell me your story. Your _whole_ story.” She drew herself close to her Autumn, and held his hands in hers. Looking up into his green eyes, she told him with genuine eyes so dark they looked violet in the bright golden ballroom. The General held his breath and gazed back, looking as if there was contemplating his next action. “I want to know everything about you, Armitage.” 

Maker, when did women become so enticing?

The General’s green eyes fluttered for a split second as he parted his lips so speak before he hardened them and nodded in return, pulling his rebel incognito to the ballroom floor, leaning in and whispering into her ear, “Ask and you shall receive, my lady. But know this, my story is not one of fairy tales and princes.”

“Neither is mine.” The Queen of the Flowers reminded her Autumn Leaves as they held each other close, marveling the fellow guests for dance after blissful dance. 

Armitage told Rose about the bastard son of a kitchen woman who was taken by his father to be molded into a ruthless zealot like himself. How for the longest time during and after his father’s abuse and ridicule, the only adult who would treat him with any compassion was the admiral who had spoke with them moments before. That despite his father being dead and gone, the shadows of his horrible treatment lingered in the form of Snoke’s obsessive nature and inability to be satisfied, as well as the torture that awaited him every night when he closed his eyes in the form of nightmares and terrible memories.

But the story the General told took a turn, that one night during reckless ambition, the bastard son received a radio signal from a lonely Resistance girl who simply wished to talk to someone in the Galaxy. How their spontaneous crossing of paths lead to years of wonderful, enlightening conversations until the son of a kitchen woman realized that the nights were calmer and filled with dreamless slumbers whenever the Flower Queen graced him with her precious voice. How her rare nature had awoke the shy, loving child who was pushed down into the darkest parts of his heart, who hid away for fear of being hurt. 

Rose promised the General that no more would the man who hid behind the cold unfeeling facade of the First Order officer have to do so. That he could always be himself around her, and she would welcome him without judgment. Such words brought the most radiant glow in Armitage’s green eyes, and the two continued to dance and impress the rest of the masquerade with their elegance. Whispering into each others ears the entire evening about their hopes, dreams, as well as Hux’s intel from First Order intelligence.

Hux divulged information pertaining to secret First Order bases, to research on light speed engines. But there was one piece of First Order business that ran a chill down Rose’s spine.

Snoke had demanded a renewed search for Ben Solo.

“Autumn, that’s absurd!” She exclaimed in a frantic whisper, “Ben Solo’s been dead for ten years!”

Hux sighed and continued whispering top secret information into her ear as he held her close during the slow dance they shared, “It seems Supreme Leader Snoke believes otherwise.”

“Since when?”

“Since Starkiller was destroyed.”

The Resistance mechanic turned spy wrapped her arm around the General’s shoulders ever so tight, “Why?”

“The old lunatic claims he felt Solo’s Force-signature erupt through the Galaxy.” Hux answered his dance partner, his nose stinging over the memory of his and Snoke’s conversation.

Rose pursed her lips in deep thought. “No. It can’t...” she whispered to herself as she leaned her chin onto Autumn’s shoulder.

“What is it, love?”

“General Organa said she felt something similar when General Solo died during the mission.”

“I beg your pardon, but I’m not sure I understand.”

Rose pulled herself closer to the First Order General’s ear, “Leia said she first felt her husband’s death through the Force during the mission to recover Rey-”

“Rey?”

“The scavenger from Jakku.”

Hux’s green eyes grew wide, “Please, continue,” he urged his Queen.

“General Organa also mentioned feeling a great presence in the Force cry out. As if in mourning.”

“Odd.”

“ _Odd_ is right! Because according to Finn and Poe Dameron, Talyc had thrown himself down the oscillator pit after General Solo. And somehow _ran_ back up with the General’s body in his arms.”

Hux pulled himself away with the unexpected grace of one who wished to look into the eyes of their lover with adoration. His words; however, lacked the charm of his actions.

“There’s absolutely no way a man wearing full beskar armor carrying a dead man could simply _wall run_ the depths of an oscillator pit! To put it lightly, it sounds ridiculous and your friends should lay off the spice! Especially that Dameron fellow! I know all about his past involvements in the spice rings.”

Rose buried her head into the General’s chest to muffle the unbecoming snort and laughter that burst from her lungs. Armitage had to stifle his own mirth.

“Autumn, I’m a mechanical engineer for starships, speeders and conduct facility maintenance in depths of jungles. I steer as far from the ridiculous as I can! But they both said the Force was involved, and I’ve seen first hand what Talyc can do with the Force on a whim. Who knows what he’s capable of when he actually applies himself.”

Hux knew from experience what the Mandalorian was capable of. He nuzzled his nose into the Queen’s soft black curls to soothe the ache that remained with him after facing him on Jakku. She smelled of sandalwood and roses. 

“My Lieutenant had done some investigating and came across some _interesting_ information. It seems when Skywalker killed his nephew, they were not at the Temple on Yavin IV.” He whispered into her hair.

“Where were they then?”

“According to satellite records from ten years ago, a rebellion era X-wing was pinged flying in the Outer Rim,” the General pulled away again, gazed at his darling Flower and added, “to Mandalore.”

Rose blinked and shook her head. “What!? Mandalore!? Why?” she murmured.

“Sadly, that’s where Mitaka his a dead end. Oddly enough, Black Beskar’s notoriety grew about a year after.”

The mechanic started to brainstorm the information she was given. All the clues pointed to one outcome.

“Oh stars,” Rose sighed, her dark eyes stared into Autumn’s, “they’re the same person!”

“You really think so?! Are you sure?”

“It’s so obvious now. How Leia was drawn to him, I saw Chewie ask my sister if she had seen him at General Solo’s funeral. _Kark_ even what I saw at Takodana before Starkiller- when the Hosnian system was destroyed. He could have reduced the Castle to rubble!”

“Wait a minute,” Hux huffed as he tried to keep his voice low while they danced, “are you saying-”

“That Black Beskar is Ben Solo? Yes.”

“By the Maker! Where is the Mandalorian?”

“Don’t know, he was last seen accompanying Rey to an undisclosed location in the hopes of finding Luke Skywalker.”

“Well let’s hope it stays that way! For the Galaxy’s sake!”

The mechanic and the General held each other close. The air around them thick with concern with the information they had just pieced together.

At the bar by the grand entrance to the Ballroom, two women stood beside each other with champagne flutes in their hands. One was quite tall, with short white blonde hair, wearing a chrome plated mask that was crafted from a loth-wolf’s skull with a shining silver dress to match. The other wore a dress of black and white striped patterns from her neck to the floor, with long gloved sleeves, and a black and white mask that covered her entire face with only small slits for unseen eyes to peek from.

“Miss Netal,” the blonde woman cooed to the other in the full body dress. The mysterious one known as ‘Miss Netal’ silently turned to the woman in silver and chrome.

“Find out what our two little lovebirds have been whispering in each other’s ears. And if it isn’t sensual nothings you let me know _immediately_.”

Miss Netal gave a curtsy to the woman in the skull mask, “With pleasure, Captain Phasma. Besides, the little flower in red looks _familiar_. I’ve been dying to take a closer look.”

“Well whatever you do, just don’t make a scene, we don’t need another one of your blood baths to clean up.” The Captain tilted her head coyly, “Wouldn’t want you so stain your pretty dress.” She crooned before she took a sip of her beverage with bright red lips that were a stark contrast to her snow white skin.

The two women laughed low and maniacally together before the woman in black and white sauntered away, gliding across the floor like a snake on solid marble.

**

After practicing her forms with the staff she found in her room, Rey sat down on her bunk to inspect the weapon a second time. It was clear that Talyc had crafted it for her, but when? How come? And what did the carving in Mando’a mean?

“You found it!” Luke spoke from out of view, causing the scavenger to look around her cabin before finding the old Jedi leaning against her doorway with his arms crossed.

“You knew about this?” Rey scoffed with a smile at the Jedi Master.

“Chewie told me about it. He helped the kid make it; chose the wood and taught him how to fire harden it. The carving though, _that_ was all Tincan.”

Rey ran her fingers across the Mando’a script, “I’d say it’s beautiful, but I have no clue what it means.”

Luke chuckled to himself and entered the room, lowering his hands as he walked to his student.

“What?”

“You’re on to something. ‘Beautiful’ is part of what it says.”

The scavenger quirked an eyebrow at her teacher. Luke pointed to the script that was carved into the wood with his prosthetic hand.

“The words Talyc chose were ‘Mesh’la A’den’. I’m not sure if it’s a title for the staff, or for you.”

“‘Beautiful wrath’,” Rey said to herself aloud, “seems contradictory to my Jedi training.”

The old man hummed to himself for a moment before stating his opinion, “I find it quite fitting,” he told Rey as he sat down next to his student on her bunk. “When you fought with your staff during your days on Jakku, what was your reason?”

“To survive.” She answered as she stared at the staff in her hands.

“And when you pick up your lightsaber and use the Force, why will you raise your blade?”

“To protect those I care about as well as those who cannot protect themselves.”

“To fight as a Jedi requires restraint, without it you risk wandering down the paths of the Sith. We are peace-keepers, Rey, not soldiers.” Luke Skywalker stared at the duristeel floor of the cabin, the disheveled porg from Rey’s meditation waddled to him and rubbed its small fat body on his robes as if to scratch an itch. “Emperor Palpatine had nearly destroyed us all by making our former Masters forget this one important fact.”

Rey reached down to pet the porg on its head. Enjoying the touch, the little creature leaned in with closed eyes and made a light chirping purr.

“But your staff, to fight with that ties you to who you, Rey of Jakku, the scavenger of the desert, are grounds you differently than Rey, the Jedi of Ahch-To. I think the Mandalorian feels that, by unleashing your desire to protect those you love with everything you have while using this,” he points to the staff as Rey continued to pay close attention to her teacher’s actions and words, “rather than the lightsaber, your ties to the Force will not be consumed by the dark so easily.” Luke pointed a robotic finger to her temple.

“I think the kid is trying to tell you to never forget who you are. And I think that may be because you remind him who he used to be.”

Rey mulled over the Jedi’s words, thinking about whether or not Talyc felt the same way about himself. Did Ben Solo engulf himself into the role of a Mandalorian to find balance within himself? Did he feel the need to survive and protect his found family would help keep him tethered to the Light? The scavenger tried to understand, but was left dumbfounded. Ben seemed to have everything her heart desired; a home, _a family_ , a gift with the Force unseen since the end of the old republic. 

Then she remembered; Ben’s home was empty, his family was preoccupied and short-sighted, and his gift made him prey to the Darkness which led to his death and rebirth as a Mandalorian. Even then, with a tribe, a new family who loved and cherished him; who would kill and die for him if they had to, Rey could not help but feel that Ben still believed he was unworthy of belonging. That no matter how much he immersed himself in his people’s way of life and lived by the Resol’nare to the letter, Talyc deep inside his heart saw himself to be nothing but a child in a mask. Pretending to be something he thought he was not.

“What troubles you, kid?”

Rey shook her head, about to tell her teacher ‘it was nothing’, but she realized then it may be time to tell Luke what she had been keeping to herself. 

“Since as long as I can remember, I’ve known and _seen_ Ben. I saw him die when I was a child, he saved my life when I was thirteen, and assured me as an adult that good people were coming to help me. I’m bound to him, Luke, in a way I don’t understand and can’t describe.”

The Jedi placed a reassuring, cool, metal hand on his student’s shoulder and gave a comforting squeeze. “I think it may be time to explain some important history with you. In the past the Sith were obsessed with a belief they had called The Rule of Two, interestingly enough it ties in with the importance of the Jedi Prime. There is a myth in both factions that talk about a mystical occurrence known as The Dyad. It’s rarely been seen, but it has always been sought out. 

“Many past generations, going back thousands of years, believed that when two people of a Dyad were born with the Force, their souls were, in fact, two halves to one whole. The Sith tried, often in vain, to replicate this occurrence with their master and apprentice relationship. The Jedi merely hoped to come across it by training and gathering as many Force-sensitives as they could.

“So it seems, to me, that the Force felt it was time to allow a Dyad to return to the Galaxy and bring true balance once more.” Luke placed his hands on his lap and sighed, “But you must understand that great power such as this is given to you for a reason. And you must use it wisely.”

“And Ben?”

“Ben is with you, Rey. He will _always_ be with you.” The old man said with a smile that peeked through his beard. “Because if I have learned anything on my path as a Jedi, it’s that no one is ever really gone.”

Luke Skywalker had no idea how right he was.

Or did he?

The last Jedi stood from the bunk and strode to the doorway of the cabin. He stopped and asked the scavenger without turning around to face her. 

“If you don’t mind my curiosity, what are your feelings for the Mandalorian?”

Rey pondered over the question, running her fingers across the carved letters in her staff as the porg fluttered up to the empty space on her bunk so that it could climb onto her lap.

“I feel whole when we’re together. That when I’m with him, everything will be alright. No matter how bleak the Galaxy’s state with the war becomes, I know we will endure if we stand beside each other.”

“Do you love him?” Luke asked his student with earnest.

“A Jedi must refuse all attachments-”

“Do you love him, Rey?” Though Luke’s voice was soft and calm as the endless black beyond the ship, his Force-signature yearned for the truth.

Did she? Rey thought for only a moment before she realized what that light feeling in her heart was, and the basis of why she was so willing to trust him as their friendship grew.

“Yes. I do.” Rey of Jakku spoke, never more certain of anything, with a conviction that she never knew she had within herself.

The old Jedi covered his mouth to hide his smile. His student’s Force-signature was pure as the Light itself when she opened her heart to the world that unknown feeling she had hidden away. But he remembered the story of his father and mother, and how their love was the catalyst to evoking an era of darkness upon the Galaxy that lingered still roughly sixty years later.

“Rey, indulge me with one more question. If you knew that Talyc was doomed to perish by the end of this war, what would you do?”

The scavenger of Jakku’s heart broke at the thought of losing the man she had come to realize she loved. To no longer feel the blue radiance that illuminated the world around him made her world seem dark as the nights of the Jakku desert. To never look into those dark ancient eyes that carried both pain and eons of secrets, but she remembered his words in regards to the Force. How they both will give, but also take away. One of the most valuable lessons in the Force she had ever learned.

“One must be gracious when the Force blesses you with a gift, but one must also accept when such gifts must be taken away. The Galaxy would be cold and lonely, but to know I had someone to love; who loved me in return, even for a while, I would continue to live in honor of them.

“I’ve been dead my whole life, Luke, my heart the withered husk of a desert flower. But I’m alive now, and nothing will stop me from living, not even loss.”

The greatest relief washed over Luke Skywalker upon hearing such wisdom from Rey, and knowing that she and his nephew would persevere. The scavenger’s words and Talyc’s both brought him more hope than he had in years.

“If anything happens where we’re going. I want you to know that I’m proud of you. _Both of you_. And know that Talyc is a man who yearns to be loved, despite his thoughts of unworthiness, deep in his soul is a boy who wishes more than anything to love and be loved for who he is.”

With those last words Luke Skywalker made his leave and Rey thought hard about what the Force had in store for the three of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mesh'la a'den - beautiful wrath.


	37. The First Domino Tips

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose and Armitage find a place a little more private.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhhhhh this is your author speaking. Letting to know we are about to hit some crazy turbulence in the next few chapters. I hope you all are ready for some grade A Star Wars pew pew laser space action because I am!
> 
> Again thank you all for reading. I hope this story brings you some solace during the Armageddon that is 2020.
> 
> Enjoy some sweet sweet gingerrose fluff!

“Can I open my eyes now?” Rose asked as General Hux led her through darkness. All the mechanic could tell about her surroundings was that she was outside due to the crisp chill in the air, and the soft grass that tickled her ankles as she followed her companion. She welcomed the cool night, enjoying it much more than the bright, stuffy ballroom full of aristocrats and First Order officers.

“Not yet, darling, just a bit further though. I promise.” The masked redhead told his Queen as he headed towards the stables up the hill and away from the casino’s banquette hall and ballroom where the masquerade was held. 

As much as the General desired nothing more than to dance and enjoy a jovial evening with his Flower, Hux had noticed Bazine Netal prowling about in, what he was certain, was an attempt to spy on their conversation. Once dinner was announced and the officers and entrepreneurs had gathered to the buffets, the two managed to lose the eavesdropping assassin in the guise of finding a spot to sit in private.

The stables were open when they entered as Armitage walked behind the woman he had been falling for deeper with every word she spoke, and placed his hands on her shoulders gently.

“Alright, love, you can open your eyes.”

When Rose Tico obeyed she gasped in delight and covered her mouth to muffle her swoon.

Fathiers!

“Autumn! You remembered!”

“My Flower, how could I forget?”

Rose skipped as best as she could in her high heeled shoes to the nearest one. The large beast with long dangling ears chewed on some cud while looking down at her with dark, docile eyes. They were more beautiful in person! She held out her hand so the creature could give it a sniff with deep short breaths, its large nostrils flexing with each puff of air that tickled the mechanic’s hand. After a moment the fathier leaned into the rebel’s hand and granted her permission to stroke it’s fur. Rose obliged the creature and continued to giggle with excitement as she did so.

“Why are they here at the casino?”

Hux looked down at his feet while he shoved his hands in his trouser pockets, kicking the hay on the ground like a young boy who needed to explain an uncomfortable truth.

“The casino races them. People make bets on the possible winners.”

The General noticed his Queen of the Flowers pause before she asked him, “What happens to the losers?” He feared that even though she asked him the question, she was already aware of the answer.

“When a fathier is deemed unprofitable, they are decommissioned,” he took a deep breath before adding, “and culled.”

Rose caressed the fatheir’s face and frowned. “That’s awful.”

“It’s business,” the First Order officer retorted in a tone that felt like ice on his tongue.

Rather than argue, Rose asked a question that provoked Armitage to consider his alliances and morals.

“Are _you_ okay with this?” she asked without turning around, afraid to look at her dear Autumn’s face when he answered.

“I was,” Hux replied in a soft tone as of confessing a secret he wished to kept hidden, “until I heard a voice that told me the Galaxy is far less cynical than the men and women around me had painted it up to be.”

Rose turned around to see General Hux gazing at her with green forlorn eyes that pleaded for forgiveness. The way his fair skin shimmered in the moonlight made him seem like a ghost begging for peace.

But there were no ghosts in the stables, only two souls who found love in the midst of war.

“I never thought myself as a good man, Flower, having had it beaten out of me by my father and the First Order for as long as I can remember. And one night while surfing radio waves in the hope of Resistance intel, I found you, and my whole world has been turned upside down ever since.”

Rose’s heart skipped a beat and her flesh prickled with goosebumps when she heard his words. Truth rang in them like bells in a grand cathedral. She stood still as the General stepped forward to her and caressed her cheeks before holding her face in his hands. Jade eyes met onyx as Armitage poured out his heart further.

“My sweet Malreaux rose, you make me want to be a better man. A good man, if possible.”

Rose’s breath was stolen from her lungs at the way he unknowingly spoke her name with so much urgency.

“I may not know your real name, but all I know is that, without a doubt, I am in love with you.” 

The lady in red brought her hands to the General’s face. She wanted nothing more than to pull him close and bring his lips to hers, but the sound of footsteps from outside the stables provoked her to push Armitage to an empty stable as far from the entrance she could find. After pushing him in with a silence and speed she did not know she had, Rose threw herself into the stable and into the pile of hay.

Or at least, that was her plan.

Instead she heard a quiet ‘oof’ and realized the pile of hay was a little firmer than she expected. She pushed herself up to find that she was on top of the First Order General, her hands were splayed across his firm, warm chest that rose and fell with his deep panting breaths.

Suddenly worried about crushing him under her weight, Rose began to remove herself from their position until Armitage placed a hand on the small of her back , urging her to stay where she was. His green eyes were filled to the brim with want as he brought his other hand behind her neck and pulled the mechanic into a searing, passionate kiss. One that made Rose Tico feel like the heroine of one of the many holo dramas she and her family used to watch when she was younger.

She had truly never felt something so divine in her life! 

The General, without words and a surprising gentleness, asked permission to deepen the kiss by running the tip of his tongue across her full red lips. Rose granted it by parting them and allowing him in. During the fires of his passion, Hux rolled the Resistance fighter onto her back, he pulled away for just long enough to saver the sight of his masked Queen in red, his darling Flower, whose lips were bruised and swollen and her eyes dark with lust as she stared up at him from the scattered hay she lay in. No longer did the rabid cur of the First Order wish to bare his teeth in dominance, the beast had been tamed, and only a man who simply desired to love and be loved remained.

“What a pity, Armitage, I expected better of you.”

Rose and the General sat up with a start upon hearing the cold, callous voice of the blonde woman in shining silver attire. Who stood beside a menacing looking woman covered from head to toe in black and white stripes. 

The blonde held a chrome plated animal skull in her hand with her arms crossed over her chest. Her blue eyes were cold as crystals of ice on planet Illum and her lips, red as the blood of men and women she killed on the battle field, were a stark contract to her skin that was white as fresh snow.

Who would have thought that the embodiment of terror had a beautiful face?

“I shouldn’t be surprised,” Phasma’s voice was venomous and cold, “jogan fruits rarely ever rot far from the tree.”

The General’s eyes flared with rage. The nerve of that snake in a dress.

“But that’s not why _I’m_ here. No,” the First Order Captain sauntered to the man in the hay. She bent her knees and gracefully lowered herself to Hux’s level. “You being a lecherous heathen is _not_ why I’m here in a stable with my best men nearby.” Phasma placed a gentle hand under the General’s chin, forcing him to look into her icy stare.

“I’m _here_ because the little harlot you’ve decided to have a roll in the hay with is a member of the Resistance!”

Hux was shaking with fury, he swallowed and stared back at the Captain with the same contempt she gave him when he spat out, “What evidence do you have?”

Phasma scoffed and with the speed of a seasoned killer she grabbed a handful of the General’s red hair in her fist, making him hiss and bare his teeth in pain. 

“One of Bazine’s specialties as an assassin is to recognize how her marks move, how they talk, how their hair falls or bounces with each step. And your escort matches the same features and characteristics of a Resistance officer seen with General Organa herself at the Pirate Queen’s Castle on Takodana! I’ll have you know that your little friend here was dressed to climb into the chutes of an air duct system. But I guess womp-rats _can_ put on some lipstick and pretend to be a lady.”

_Crack!_

Armitage had had enough of the slander and insults thrown at his Flower by Phasma and threw his forehead into the Captain’s face as hard as he could. She shook it off and grabbed the General by the throat, digging her painted manicured nails into his skin just enough to cause a trickle of blood to seep out and run down his neck. Hux smiled a contemptuous grin, admitting without words his treachery to the First Order and loyalty to the woman in red beside him. Phasma snarled at the red head as she tightened her grip on his throat.

“You knew,” The Captain said in a low, furious hiss through her teeth. “Bazine, let it be known that from this moment forward, Armitage Hux is stripped of his rank of General and is hereby charged with treason and espionage. His ship hens forth will be under my command until further notice.” 

The woman in silver stood up and dusted herself off with one hand while glancing at the mask she held in the other. She brought it to her face to admire the fine details of the loth-wolf skull’s beauty before glaring down at the former officer.

“Tell me, Armitage, was it all worth it? _Worth her_?”

Before the red head could snap back an answer, Phasma reared her arm back and struck the former General across the face with the chrome plated skull hard enough to knock the man unconscious. He fell in a limp heap on the bed of hay. Rose shrieked in terror, unsure whether or not the blow was fatal. 

“Miss Netal, I need you to neutralize the girl.” Phasma ordered as she wiped the small amount of blood that lingered on her mask, “But keep her alive!” She added, “Their audience with the Supreme Leader had been requested by Snoke himself. I’ll have my men come in to retrieve them when you’re done.”

As soon as Phasma had finished her speech, Bazine Netal flicked her wrist in Rose’s direction and a pinch was felt in the lady in red’s neck. The mechanic grabbed the projectile and pulled it out of her skin, noting the thin needle-like dart before looking on at Phasma and the assassin as her eyes rolled back and she fell into a dark, unwanted slumber.

**

Finn stood at attention with the stormtrooper that returned from their perimeter check for quite some time in an awkward silence. What if they had recognized him? What would they do if they did? A flood of questions bombarded Leia Organa’s padawan until the other trooper interrupted his thoughts.

“What’s up with you, SM-1115? You’re not as chatty as you were earlier.”

“Nothin’.” Finn answered in a calm voice, “Just don’t feel like talking.”

The stormtrooper stood silent for a short moment before Finn could feel through their Force-signature the realization dawning on the soldier. The stormtrooper turned to Finn and the Jedi in training could feel the terror radiating from the other’s senses.

“FN-2187! Is that you!?”

Their voice sounded more surprised and possibly relieved that the apprentice expected. But Finn was not willing to take any chances and channeled the Force to trick the stormtrooper’s mind

“Nope, I’m definitely _not_ FN-2187.”

The trooper tilted their head in confusion, “You’re not?”

“Nope.”

“Oh.”

The stormtrooper returned to their position to stand at attention before turning back to the Jedi in training. 

Can you...keep a secret SM-1115?” they asked in a shy voice atypical of a First Order soldier.

“Sure, what’s up?”

“I was...kinda hoping you were FN-2187.”

Finn blinked rapidly behind his helmet, “Why would you hope I was the traitor?” He asked his former comrade.

“Honestly,” the stormtrooper began to admit to the padawan, their head turned up to the night sky above as they spoke, “I just want to ask him what it’s like out there in the Galaxy. ‘Cause even though FN-2187 is a traitor, the lucky bastard’s free to see it all. And I wonder what that feels like.”

Finn’s heart broke for the soldier who revealed their envy and secret desires. And he remembered that many of his fellow former compatriots were just like he once was; trapped under the merciless thumb of the First Order.

“Maybe when the war’s over the First Order will allow us some much needed time off,” Finn tried to assure the stormtrooper, “Maybe we’ll get that chance to see the Galaxy beyond our fleets.”

The apprentice was met with a scoff and the trooper shook their head. “No. This war will never end. We win, a new rebellion will rise; if we lose, some other fanatics will take our place.”

To know his former brother-in-arms felt so hopeless crushed Finn’s spirit further. He was growing determined to find a way to do something, _anything_ , to end their strife and set them free of the tyranny they all endured.

“Oh kriff!”

Finn was brought back to reality when the other stormtrooper nudged his shoulder and gestured to Captain Phasma and the assassin Bazine Netal. They walked at the head of a group of stormtroopers who were dragging two prisoners aboard the Finalizer. When the incognito padawan saw the prisoners his heart sank and despair filled the void that was left behind in his chest.

Rose and General Hux were the Captain’s prized catch, and Finn helplessly watched as they were pulled along onto the Star Destroyer’s massive hangar. 

“Take them to a holding cell and inform the crew to get ready for departure. Our destination is the Supremacy. The rat and this Resistance scum will be brought to Supreme Leader Snoke to be made examples of.” Phasma ordered the troopers who carried Finn’s friend and the former commanding officer through the hanger and aboard the Finalizer to be detained.

“Show’s over!” the Captain shouted at Finn and the other trooper, “Head to your stations! We’re leaving.”

“What about the other officers?” the stormtrooper asked Phasma.

“There’s weapons to purchase and deals yet to be made. They’ll stay. Now get out of here before I make you!”

“Yes, Captain!” Finn and the stormtrooper answered in unison before marching passed her and farther into the depths of the Finalizer. It felt odd to the Jedi in training to fall back into old habits so quickly.

“ _Whew_! That woman scares the daylights outta me!” The stormtrooper huffed when they were out of earshot of the Captain. “You seem pretty shaken up too, SM-1115. You okay?”

“Yeah. Phasma just gets to me sometimes,” Finn lied. He had to figure out a way to get to Rose and find her comlink. He had to warn Poe! “If you don’t mind, I’m gonna go on patrol. I’ll see you later.”

“A regular go-getter, SM-1115! Alright, take it easy.”

“Yeah, you too.”

Finn marched away as he recalled where the holding cells were located. He knew this and all the other star destroyers in the First Order fleets like the back of his hand, having been trained in remembering the ships’ layouts as a cadet. Not to mention he was stationed on the Finalizer for months prior to Jakku. The Jedi apprentice continued to march on down winding hallways, playing the part of toy soldier again as he drew closer to his friend’s cell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will Finn find his best friend!? Will Poe figure out what the hell is going on!!?? 
> 
> Find out next week in chapter 38 of The Way of Honor and Blood! Titled: The Pieces Begin to Fall!!!
> 
> I would like some much needed opinions. Later in the story I am debating writing some more 'mature' chapters (as in explicit). But if you readers are fine with the M rating and would prefer it stays that way, I can make those chapters one-shots and compile this and those into a series.
> 
> Your opinions matter to me; however, I will take the silence as a comfort with the M rating and I will make those explicit scenes as one shots within the Bendalorian AU.
> 
> Until next week friends!


	38. The Pieces Begin to Fall...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose and Armitage share a moment between their cells before they are visited by an unexpected soldier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading! Sorry this chapter is a little shorter than usual.

Rose Tico came to on the cold floor in a bright metal room with nothing but a cot along the wall. She rubbed her aching head, induced by whatever tranquilizer was on that kriffing dart.

“They could’ve thrown me on the damn cot, at least,” she grumbled to herself as she sat up.

“Unfortunately, not all of us are gentlemen, love,” a familiar voice said in a low tone from the next cell. A timbre Rose was elated to hear despite her unfavorable situation; one she feared she would never hear again.

“Autumn!”

“The one and only, my Flower.” Hux heard a loud sigh of relief from the other side of the wall he was leaning against. He would smile, but that skull to the face really did a number on him. He was sure half of it was already purple and blue with bruises.

“I thought Phasma killed you.” He heard Rose say. Though she sounded relieved, the former General could hear the slight quiver of worry in her sweet voice.

“It’ll take more than that. Believe it or not, I’ve been dealt worse.” Armitage spoke with an inflated sense of pride. Anything to distract himself from the impending destination they were heading.

“Working for these creeps? Hmph! I believe it.”

The former General of the First Order tilted his head and felt the cool steel against the back of it and exhaled.

Thank the Maker, she was alright.

“Any mention of where we’re going?” Hux asked, part of him had a inkling he already knew.

“The Supremacy. To Snoke,” his Flower answered.

“Kark.” Armitage was hoping he was wrong. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath in an attempt to calm his rising nerves, but such efforts were in vain. He would rather he and his Queen were thrown in a sarlacc pit than be left in the presence of the Supreme Leader. 

‘So this is it,’ he thought in silence. The time to finally meet the Maker and answer for his crimes was upon him; Hux scoffed to himself over the irony, how his demise was met in the pursuit of love and redemption instead of at the hands of a double-crossing underling seeking a boost in rank.

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, darling, but I believe we’re at the end of the hyperlane.”

“Funny,” Rose quipped, “I thought the end would’ve had more flare.”

The two lovers laughed in their cells and sighed. Even in their final hours their conversation were held through separation.

“While we wait to die, I have a couple final questions to ask.” Armitage spoke through the wall.

“Fire away, Autumn,” Rose granted, fully aware of the ironic humor in her words as she knew his real name.

“How did you figure out who I was?”

“I didn’t. Finn did.” Rose replied, she was sitting against the wall, her legs crossed together. She fiddled with her hands to help keep her focused on the conversation.

“Finn?” Hux furrowed his brow. He was sure he knew no one by that name. “Who is Finn?”

“The defector stormtrooper.”

“ _Ah_! Did he come up with that name? It’s quite clever.”

“No,” Rose chuckled, “Dameron gave him that name.”

“The spice-runner turned hero pilot?” He gasped jokingly.

“The one and only.”

Hux raised his eyebrows and shook his head to ease the pain doing so caused his face. “Never thought of him as the witty type. Just charismatic.”

Rose snorted in her cell. The former General began to chuckle as well. The amount of mirth in the darkest moment they shared was cathartic. Maybe they were losing their minds; if so, Armitage would gladly succumb to madness, and he was curious if his Flower Queen felt the same.

“Flower.”

“Yes, Autumn?”

“Please, call me Armitage.”

“Alright, _Armitage_ ,” Rose brought her knees to her chest and leaned her cheek on them as she added, “shoot.”

“Before we perish, I would like to at least know the name of the very woman who stole my heart years ago during an intergalactic transmission.”

The Resistance mechanic smiled in her cell, baffled that she had the ability to given their dire situation.

“Rose,” The Queen of the Flowers exhaled, feeling the weight of her secret lift from her shoulders as she did so. “My name is Rose Tico.”

“Rose,” Armitage whispered, causing a rush of heat to course through the owner of the lovely name he spoke. Of course her name was Rose! With the alias of ‘Flower Queen’ it was obvious now that the former General finally knew her name. “You truly are the Queen of the Flowers,” he huffed.

“My sister always says to hide in plain sight. People rarely find what’s right in front of them.”

Whoever Paige Tico was in the Resistance, the woman was as brilliant as her sister.

“Would you care to answer _my_ question?” Rose asked in a small voice, one that seemed shy.

“Not at all. What do you want to know?”

Rose to a deep breath that puffed her cheeks when she blew it out. There was no better time than the present, it may be the only chance she had to ask.

“Back on Cantonica, in the stables, did you mean what you said?”

Armitage furrowed his brow again, he was pained to know that she had doubts about his confession. “Of course I meant it,” he said softly, “why would you think otherwise?”

Rose scoffed, perhaps his naivety was part of his charm. “Not every day does a handsome man of high class fall for the voluptuous, foul-mouth, gearhead.”

“And not every day does a gearhead fall for the bastard son of a commandant and a kitchen maid.” Hux replied, reminding the woman on the other side of the wall that he, like her, was a simple person beneath the facades of rank and faction.

Rose’s eyes welled with tears, one falling down her shapely olive cheek. They were both beautifully imperfect, and she would have it no other way.

“Seems like we’re meant to be, like the heroes in some bad holodrama.” she said with a voice that betrayed her tears.

Sensing the dismay of his love, Armitage tried to do the best he could with that famous Poe Dameron wit he had just found out about. “Oh, the worst!” he laughed. Soon the rebel and the traitor were laughing at the absurdity that was their lives, their love, and themselves. But the moment ended in a small weak cry from Rose’s cell.

“Armitage, I’m scared. I don’t wanna die. Not like this.”

The former General did his damnedest to hold back his own tears that threatened to fall. He would not; his Queen needed him to be strong, more than ever before.

There was an unexpected hiss of the door panel sliding open, when Hux realized his cell was still sealed and he heard the heels of Rose’s shoes clatter on the steel as she seemed to scoot or step back away from the intruder that entered her cell.

“And what the kark do you want?!” The foul-mouth mechanic shouted at whoever was stepping towards her. Armitage pressed his ear to the wall, hearing the clank of slow footsteps of plastoid armor boots making their way to Rose.

“Stay back!”

The footsteps did not relent.

“Don’t come near me!”

_Clank! Clank!_

“Leave the Rebel girl alone or, I swear, I’ll have you reprimanded! _That’s an order_!” The former officer bluffed through the wall with a menacing roar as he pounded his fist into the duristeel that stood between him and his dear Rose. 

There was a short rustle and a thud of a helmet falling to the ground. That was when Hux heard Rose gasp.

“Finn!?”

“ _Finn_?” Armitage said in a curious and higher pitched voice than the order he barked out seconds before.

“That’s SM-1115 to you guys.” The Jedi apprentice quipped before kneeling down to the floor in front of his friend, “I need something from you, Rose. Or else we can’t make contact with Poe and the Resistance.”

“Oh! Right!” the mechanic exclaimed as she went straight to unlacing the strap on her left shoe. Once in her hands, with a turn and a pull, the heel of her shoe came apart from the sole. Rose opened her palm and turned the disconnected heel upside down and a small wireless comlink fell into her hand. She placed the small device into Finn’s.

“Be careful with that. It’s a prototype.” She told the padawan as she reassembled her shoe and replaced it on her foot.

Finn gave his best friend a grin to lighten his words, “You know where we are, I can’t make any promises.”

“Just do what you can and _don’t blow your cover_!”

“So long as your informant in the next cell keeps his trap shut, I think I’ll be fine.”

“FN- _Finn_?”

Rose and Finn paused upon hearing the former General’s voice through the wall. 

“I hate to cut our reunion short, but I’m gonna see what he wants and com Dameron.” The former stormtrooper placed his armored hand on Rose’s shoulder, pouring all his love into the gentle squeeze to let her know he was going to do everything in his power to get them out of the mess they put themselves in alive.

The mechanic reached up to her shoulder and held onto her dear friend’s hand, letting him know she had faith in him before he stood up, replaced his plastoid helmet and left her cell to go to the next one. When he entered his former commanding officer’s chamber the two men stared at each other as he removed his headgear in a morbid silence. Each man casting a defiant stare, waiting for the other to break away. The rebel in disguise shrugged and rolled his eyes while he relaxed his stance, letting the red head win.

“What do you want.” Finn’s tone was not unfriendly, but neither was it welcoming.

Hux scooted himself away from the wall and beckoned with his hand for Finn to come closer so the woman in the next cell could not hear what he had to say. “I need you to hold onto something for me,” he whispered in a serious monotone while reaching for an item in his breast pocket, prompting Finn to aim his blaster rifle at the prisoner on reflex.

“Relax, you trigger-happy idiot, it’s for the girl!” the redhead scolded the former trooper in a gruff whisper. He pulled an old iron skeleton key out of his pocket and held it out for Finn to take. “Give it to her in case I...don’t make it out of here.”

The man playing stormtrooper took the key and looked at it in his open palm, “What is it?” he asked.

“It’s the key to my bloody heart, you dolt!” Armitage cracked with an insulting answer. Realizing the error of his words, he lowered his eyes as he humbled himself. “My apologies. It’s just a key the Order doesn’t need to get their hands on. I would like Rose to keep it, it’s the only trinket I have of a better self.”

Finn nodded and held the key tight in his gloved hand. He understood better than anyone the importance and liberation of finding a better version of one’s self. He had made the same change.

Just how many others were like Armitage and himself?

“I suppose everybody gets one. Don’t make me regret doing this.” Finn said as he tried to sound distrusting of a man who was once his colleague as well as an enemy. Who Hux was to him in the present moment, Finn was no longer sure.

“Don’t make _me_ regret entrusting it to you.” the traitor answered the defector with a similar tone in his voice. And the Jedi in training could feel in the other’s Force-signature the fear, as well as hope, that hovered around him like the misty fogs of Arkanis where he was born.

Armitage Hux and the man simply known as Finn scoffed at each other, the prisoner in his own jail smiled and nodded to the former First Order soldier, an informal order to leave before his cover was blown by his incessant sentimentality. The final command as a free man.

Finn gave Hux a nod in return, acknowledging his freedom despite the other sitting in a holding cell awaiting his punishment by the very faction he spent his life serving. The rebel replaced his helmet and opened the door panel so that he could leave the cell in a hurry.

**

Poe sat by his lonesome at the pilot’s seat of the Millennium Falcon. His arms crossed on the powered down control panel so he could rest his head in boredom as he waited for his friends to return to the old Corellian freighter. The pilot wondered how often Han sat in the exact same spot, doing the exact same thing, while he waited for other rapscallions being reckless with their lives. He sighed and wondered how many times his deceased General had sat in the same chair and allowed his mind to wander to images of Leia as she caused trouble for the Empire back in the days of their youth. Just how his own thoughts had drifted to daydreams of Finn.

“C’mon, Dameron! Pull yourself together!” The resistance pilot stood up and said to himself aloud on the ship. The efforts were useless, all the man could do was imagine embracing the man of his fantasies as soon as he returned with his old friend and comrade from her own romantic rendezvous. To trace his calloused fingertips across smooth, plump lips and to-

Poe shook his head in defeat. He was a lovesick fool and proud of it! No longer will the women of the Hapes cluster whisper among each other about Poe Dameron the Incubus of the Hapen Court like some devil or sex crazed boogeyman that comes from the shadows to steal their precious subservient men. He was spoken for finally- or, well, _hopefully_.

Just then, the low, heavy, unmistakable rumble of a large scale ship preparing to leave planet vibrated the air around Poe. The only ship imaginable that could shake the world as it departed from it was a Star Destroyer; which could only mean-

Rose!

Finn!

General Hugs! Arm Bandage! Whatever the karking First Order bastard’s name was! He was possibly in danger as well. And Poe Dameron was not a man to forsake someone who knew love so deep, they would rebel against their very masters for it!

There was only one thing the Resistance pilot _could_ do. And that was to return to the Rebels and tell them everything; the covert operation, the mission failure, and warn them that they needed to get away from Crait as soon as possible! So Poe, with the precision and drive of a mad man, threw himself back into the captain’s chair and flipped switches , pulled levers, and pressed buttons until the Falcon was lifting into the air before darting out of Cantonica’s atmosphere. And he hoped to the Maker and any other gods that would listen that he would get to his friends before the First Order had a chance to find them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will Rose and Hux survive!? Will Finn be found out by the First Order!? Will Poe make it to the Resistance in time!? 
> 
> Find out next week in chapter 39 of The Way of Honor and Blood! Titled: Right into Place!!!


	39. Right into Place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading.
> 
> Before the chapter begins. A rakazzak is a spider like predator native to Endor. The word "stoopa" is Huttese for fool/idiot.
> 
> Don't be afraid to like, subscribe, bookmark and comment.
> 
> Updates are between Wednesdays and Fridays weekly. I will inform everyone of any changes in that schedule.
> 
> Enjoy!

“Captain Phasma, there’s an unusual radio frequency being sent from inside the Finalizer.”

Phasma, back in her shining chrome plated plastoid uniform, approached the radio technician on the bridge. She squinted her ice blue eyes behind her black stormtrooper visor. But before she could gather more information on the radio signal she was called over by another crew member on the bridge.

“Captain, you might want to take a look at this!” A radar technician hollered from his post at the bridge. The adjunct General straightened her posture and stormed to the radar station. Her presence instilling a chill in the air.

“What is it, ensign Matthew?”

The radar technician with blonde curls, long face and an aquiline nose glanced up at the Captain with honey brown eyes that quickly darted back to his screen as he pointed to the holoscreen in front of him. Indicating the fast moving object that soared through the radar map. Phasma leaned in to take a closer look at the screen, causing the man named Matthew to lean to his side as if to maintain a sense of space in the small station on the bridge.

“The kark is that?” the Captain whispered, more to herself than to the awkward technician whose space she was slowly invading.

“According to the speed and energy trail left behind, our systems have deduced it to be none other than the Millennium Falcon,” Matthew answered as he tried to maintain his composure in the cramped space.

“ _The Millennium Falcon_!?” The Captain shouted loud enough that the rest of the officers on the bridge flinched at their stations. The radar technician closest to the roaring source managed to not react to his superior officer’s exclamation. “Lieutenant Mitaka!” she barked.

The First Order Lieutenant stepped forward, holding his hands behind his back as he stood at attention, that way he could hide how they trembled in Phasma’s presence. Beads of sweat formed on his brow beneath his hat. The Captain, like a wild rakazzak grabbing its prey, turned around and grabbed the collar of his uniform and pulled him close and pointed to the radar screen behind her.

“Have your stealthiest pilot board the fastest ship on this vessel and _follow that flying piece of trash_! That’s an order!”

“Y-yes, Captain!” the poor Lieutenant yelped as Phasma jostled him about by the shirt collar.

“And you!” Phasma turned to the radar technician without letting go of Lieutenant Mitaka. Provoking a flailing start and a loud “Hah!” from the blonde, who eyes the intimidating Captain with unusually soft brown irises for a member of the First Order. 

“Good work,” she complimented the man as she released the Lieutenant from her grip, oblivious to how Mitaka stumbled away in an embarrassed hurry to carry out the command.

Dopheld Mitaka hoped to the Maker and every countless star that surrounded him that the Captain’s command would be short lived.

**

‘Kriff! Kriff! Karking kriffity kark!’

Poe Dameron flew through the hyperlanes as fast as the Millennium Falcon could travel through the black, the star trails sped past him like sparkling ribbons through space, making the black void look like a rippling curtain of light through transparisteel windows.

He had to reach the Raddus, he had to warn the Resistance! The pilot’s determination to make it to his friends in time had left him oblivious to the black TIE Whisper that followed from a distance. Far enough to allow it to blend in with the black cloak of the Galaxy’s emptiness, using a radar jam to further ensure their invisibility as they tailed the Falcon in its desperate pursuit.

“AO-23-9, what’s your position?”

“I’ve located the Millennium Falcon, that beat up old freighter is surprisingly fast.”

“Remain in position, and whatever you do, don’t lose sight of that bird!”

“Roger that.”

**

“General Organa, is something troubling you?”

Leia blinked herself back to reality aboard the Raddus. Delegations with High Command had just adjourned and the group of admirals and commanders followed the General to the bridge. It was only a matter of time before they would prepare to speak with the entire Resistance who had come from near and far to congregate together and plan their next moves from the present forward. 

The last Princess of Alderaan turned to the woman who had voiced her worry, she was tall, lean, with violet curls that hung down just below her slender shoulders, wearing a maroon and cream colored dress that draped down her body; disguising in modesty and grace the fierce and steadfast Vice Admiral who fought with a vigor that rivaled nearly every man and woman in the Rebel Alliance during the Galactic Civil War thirty years before.

Amilyn Holdo was not only a brave warrior, but also incredibly perceptive of those around her. Leia took a deep breath, and prepared in an instant a politically neutral answer to thwart the Vice Admiral’s suspicions. “No, old friend. I’m just feeling my age today.”

In truth, Leia felt through the Force the use of Finn’s abilities from afar. Maybe he was training himself, but a small dreading piece of her believed that the young rebel was too far from home. There was also someone crying out in desperation to reach a destination, and another presence; closer than the others, that was simply _waiting_ to make their next move. Something massive was about to unfold. And while the Force left the older woman guessing, Leia could not help but feel that whatever the future held, it was not going to fair well. And she was grateful that Rey, Talyc, and Finn were far away, the former two being somewhere unknown training with Luke, whose Force-signature still evaded her.

There was a hurried stamping of feet speeding to the General and Vice Admiral as Lieutenant Connix came running down the hallway to the bridge, dodging and weaving past various Resistance soldiers and personnel with remarkable ease. She stopped before Leia and Amilyn, gasping for air and holding a hand to her chest. Stars, what had the girl in such a hurry?

“General Organa! Vice-Admiral Holdo! We’ve got a problem!”

The General and Vice Admiral squared their shoulders and mentally prepared themselves for the worst news they could possibly hear.

“The Millennium Falcon has just boarded the Raddus! Poe Dameron is waiting in the hangar! He demanded to speak with you right away.” The huffing Lieutenant added between breaths.

“Dameron,” Holdo uttered as she turned to Leia with an inquisitive stare, “I thought he was on D’Qar.”

‘Shit!’ Leia thought to herself. There was a disturbance in the Force. The only course of action to take next would be to figure out why Poe was aboard the Raddus and who else may be up to their elbows in bantha fodder. And, most importantly, if the damned fool had been followed from wherever the kriff he came from.

“Kaydel, take me to Dameron, I need to have a word with him immediately.” The commanding tone of the Resistance General sent a chill of dread down the Lieutenant’s spine as she turned and led her superior officers to the pilot who waited at the Millennium Falcon. Waving away the rest of High Commend, Leia signaled them to wait for her on the bridge. All of them complied with the exception of Amilyn who insisted on accompanying the General to the hangar.

“Mr. Dameron, to what do we owe this _unexpected_ appearance?” Amilyn quipped at the noticeably distraught pilot who stood outside of the Millennium Falcon. He wrung his hands nervously when the three Resistance High Command officers had approached him. Vice-Admiral Holdo had made it clear to Poe many times that she believed him to be cocky, brash, and immature; making any interactions with the seasoned rebel frustrating and exhausting for the pilot.

“My business, Vice-Admiral, is with General Organa. Who I would like to speak with _alone_.”

“As a member of High Command, Mr. Dameron, I am to _also_ be informed of any developments in the Resistance. Anything you need to say to General Organa you can say in my presence as well.” Amilyn Holdo replied as she held the pilot’s gaze, the Vice-Admiral was a woman who never lost her footing whenever she stood her ground.

There was no way Poe was going to be able to talk his way out of his predicament. The Vice-Admiral was, unfortunately, correct and was of proper rank and authority to make such a command. The Resistance pilot sighed, ran his fingers through his wild dark curls, and informed his superiors of the danger they were all in.

“I...there was a mission-”

“What kind of mission?” Holdo inquired with narrowing eyes, but was rendered silent by the General’s stony gaze.

“A really dumb one to be honest.” Poe sighed as his shoulders sagged, “Rose Tico had taken action to meet her contact with the First Order in person. Finn accompanied her as extra protection. But the mission was compromised. I believe Miss Tico is in First Order custody, the whereabouts of Finn are currently unknown.” The information regarding her apprentice caused Leia to suck in a breath that seemed to pain her, which made Poe flinch as if he were being scolded before he continued, “I only got off of Cantonica because I saw the Finalizer begin to depart.”

“Cantonica? As in _Canto Bight_ , Dameron?” Leia’s voice was low, but damning, as she addressed the pilot.

Poe nodded like a child who was aware of his coming reprimand from his mother, fast and short, “Rose was to meet her contact at the arms masquerade.” He spoke his words with eyes looking down, unable to look at the General knowing how disappointed she must have been in him and his willingness to take the risk that could very well put all of them in danger.

Amilyn Holdo’s fair face was drained of color as her lips parted in horror, General Organa remained stone faced and asked the pilot one more question.

“Were you followed?”

Poe Dameron’s heart began to race like a tauntaun on the run, he stared into his superiors’ stern gazes with his own repentant brown eyes.

“I don’t know, I was so focused on trying to find you that I didn’t think to-”

_Slap!_

The pilot’s head reared to the left, the sting of Leia’s ring scratching his cheek when the back of her hand swiped across his face surged throughout his body in a wave. Vice-Admiral Holdo’s eyes widened in shock as Lieutenant Connix flinched and closed her eyes as if the strike was meant for her.

“You stoopa!” Leia hollered at Poe in the hanger so loud that everyone in the space within earshot stopped what they were doing and stared wide-eyed and mouths gaping as they observed the High Commander and their leader lose her temper and outright slap the man that was assumed to be her surrogate son.

“You know better!” She scolded, “Your beautiful parents taught you! I taught you! _Han_ taught you! The damned spice runners of Kijimi taught you! What’s the first thing a pilot does when they’re on the run, Poe!?”

“Make sure you’re not being tailed.” Poe exhaled as he rubbed his sore cheek. Whether or not her hands were bejeweled with rings, the old woman had one hell of a swing.

“It’s bad enough that Rose and Finn are compromised! I hope for all our sakes that the only Force-using rebel we have is not being sent to Ren or Snoke as we speak!”

The deafening silence hovered in the hangar after Leia’s words had echoed off the walls. That was until the fuzz of static broke the still air from none other than Poe Dameron’s shirt pocket. Not long after, a voice faded into the quiet hangar, one that filled Poe’s heart with hope, and Leia's mind with relief.

“This is Finn of the Resistance. Poe Dameron, do you copy!?”

The pilot was frozen where he stood, he noticed how his General took in a deep breath and relaxed her shoulders upon knowing her apprentice was alive and surviving. She returned her gaze to the pilot and with a frantic wave of her hand she told him, “Well, go on and answer him!” 

Poe right away pulled the mic out of his pocket and moved it to his mouth. “This is Poe Dameron. Finn, are you safe?”

“I’m fine, but things may turn real sour for Rose and Hux.”

‘Rose you sly girl! How’d you make the Rabid Cur of all people your informant!?’ Poe thought with a smug grin curling his lip.

“Hux? As in the First Order General?” Holdo asked General Organa.

“Miss Tico has had regular contact with an inside informant. I; however, was unaware of the rank and standing of the girl’s connection,” Leia answered her old friend in a low whisper.

“Seems the younger Tico is as bold and daring as her sister. Tell me, Leia, are all your children so wild and brazen?” Amilyn asked in the same low volume so that Poe could speak with Finn through the comlink without interruption.

The General smiled the way a mother does when she thinks about her children, full of love and pride. “Amilyn, you have no idea,” the Resistance General muttered under her breath. In that moment, rather than listen in on the conversation between Poe and Finn, Leia could not help but wonder what kind of chaotic and wild man would Ben have become if the Galaxy had not taken him away from her. For no matter how many rebellious youths she and Han had adopted throughout their leadership in the Resistance, none of them could fill the void she tore open herself when she treated her son with fear and negligence instead of love and dedication.

“-All I’m saying is the Raddus has got to get out of the Crait system now,” Finn’s voice cuts through the General’s thoughts like a knife.

“Why? Where are you?”

“Rose and Armitage were shuttled to the Supremacy a short while ago, I managed to sneak aboard as well. While doing so, I overheard Phasma informing Admiral Pryde that the Falcon was successfully followed to the Raddus.”

“Kark,” Connix whispered to herself, by the lack of Amilyn and Leia’s reaction to the curse uttered, it seemed they too shared the young woman’s sentiment.

“The First Order is coming, Dameron,” Finn said with an eerie calm that still resonated with urgency, “You have to get the Resistance to retreat! I have no time left to say much else, I have to go.” His last words were tinted with something akin to dread, but also longing. Poe sighed quietly as he felt the same.

“Be safe, Finn.” Poe had so much more he wanted to say, but the time was far from appropriate. 

“For you, Poe,” The informality of his first name in the current conversation brightened the dark mood in the Pilot’s heart, and his next word could have lifted him off of his feet, “ _always_.” The way Finn emphasized the word and the tone in his voice through the comlink sent Poe’s thoughts to every far corner of the Galaxy except his dire situation.

“Mr. Dameron, I believe the feed has been cut.” The Vice-Admiral pulled him back to reality with a spitting voice. “We need to go to the bridge. Now!”

As the commander of the Raddus everyone in the group followed Amilyn Holdo’s order, even her superior officer, General Organa herself, walked beside the Vice-Admiral as they hurried to the bridge to announce the unexpected turn of events.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time on the Way of Honor and Blood; Rose and Hux confront Snoke while the Resistance faces their enemy and hear from an old friend.
> 
> The next chapters are going to get action packed! I'm excited to share them!!!


	40. The Flower and the Monster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose and Armitage are brought to Snoke. An unlikely reunion is had through the communications channels.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's here after this chapter its gonna be old fashioned Star Wars with the space ships, and lasers and pew pews, and possible angst and space wizard badassery!
> 
> I hope y'all are ready for the ride!
> 
> Enjoy.

The turbolift was small; two humans and two fully armored stormtroopers made the trip within the light panel walled capsule all the more cramped as Rose stood beside Armitage, both unmasked by the soldiers in white when they were pulled from their cells moments before, with the barrel of an Imperial regulation blaster rifle digging into her bare back. 

“Could you _please_ get that thing off of me, it’s digging in!” The woman in red grumbled.

The stormtrooper behind the younger Tico sister answered her request by jabbing the barrel harder into her spine, provoking an unbecoming grunt to leave the mechanic. “Rrgh! Some way to treat a lady!”

“Yeah, a lady who happens to be Resistance scum!” one of the troopers spat out through their vocoder.

Rose rolled her eyes, if she had the right equipment she would show that faceless idiot who was scum! The mechanic seethed in her anger until a warm hand reached over and held hers, she looked over and saw Armitage staring straight ahead as his fingers laced between hers. His face was palled and the bruises from Phasma’s mask had begun to form into indigo and green continents on his skin. Bruises aside, Rose saw Armitage as a handsome man without his mask.

The woman in red began to be pulled down the riptides of guilt. She could not help but feel that the situation they were in was her fault. Because by pursuing what seemed like childish fantasies had sentenced not only her, but also Armitage, to death by- only the Maker knew, whatever twisted means Snoke had in store.

“I’m sorry,” Rose whispered to her dear Autumn, the man behind the voice that kept her believing in the lingering hope of the Galaxy that always held on by a thread of silk. “I’m sorry we got caught. Before this all ends, know that I’ll never regret knowing you.”

Armitage Hux, former General of the First Order. The downtrodden lonely child who was starved for love for so long, when he finally was given it he was willing to die in order to hold onto it for just a moment, smiled as he looked ahead at the duristeel door of the turbolift. He feared if he turned to see the headstrong woman who showed him an entire universe he believed was beyond his reach, the tears he held back would fall and his foundations to try and be brave in their darkest hour would crumble to dust. 

“To die knowing you, and having shared one kiss, my death as a traitor will be nobler than even ascending to the rank of Supreme Leader.” His grip on her hand tightened, offering the illusion of the embrace he so desperately wanted to give.

“It was an honor to serve you, my Flower Queen. Now, lets give the bastards a death to remember.” Armitage whispered with a smirk to his lady as the doors slid open, revealing a room dyed crimson before the troopers behind them pushed the two prisoners forward into the red room. Their locked hands came apart due to the force of the soldiers’ thrusting them into the room. Causing them to fall onto their hands and knees on the polished black duristeel floor.

Rose tried to stand up, but an invisible force pushed her back down on her knees in a kneeling position. She tried to move but felt the very gravity of the room hold her in place.

“Now, now, pet. Do you not know? It is proper etiquette to kneel before your lord and master of the Galaxy?” A quiet, venomous voice rumbled through the room of blood from a black, shining throne at the center of the wall before them. Upon it, sat the most horrifying creature in golden silk robes. The wretched man had withered, scarred skin with warped contours around his broken skull that hid behind marred, discolored flesh. His eyes, even from where Rose kneeled so far from his throne, were a pale, sharp blue that struck fear everywhere they stared.

This monstrosity in the flesh had to be Snoke.

“I should not be surprised, as how could a rat from the gutters of the Otomok System know anything about proper etiquette?”

“How would you know where I come from?” Rose growled defiantly despite the pressure that held her in place grew heavier.

“My dear,” Snoke’s voice was a poison in the air, “I can know whatever I please.” He held out a ghastly pale hand, and curled a gnarled finger, beckoning the mechanic forward with the Force. No matter how she resisted, Rose could not shake herself from the invisible pull that dragged her across the smooth floor at a pace that was slow and agonizing.

“I know your loss. Your pain. I know your jealousy, and bitterness towards your lovely sister.” The Supreme Leader crooned as Rose’s body moved ever forward.

“You’re a liar!” Rose spat out.

“I know how insecure children such as yourself get when they are all alone! I see you Rose Tico! How unloved you feel when you see the last piece of your family expand her own with friendship! Leaving you to do nothing, but tinker away with others’ toys like an indentured servant!” a deformed snarl warped Snoke’s pale thin lips, “So desperate to find belonging, you sought out a helpless fool seeking the same false freedom from loneliness!”

With those last words, the Supreme Leader of the First Order pulled Armitage before the throne at a speed that made the traitor look like a limp tooka doll. The former General continued to face the ground, his breath ragged with shame and fury over his helplessness.

“You have no idea who I am!” Rose screamed into the red room at the master weaver of lies, “I have friends! I am loved! I love my sister more than my own life! And you dare doubt the man, whose voice I fell in love with before seeing his beautiful face!” The mechanic’s eyes narrowed with rage when she added with a snarl on her red lips, “But beauty is obviously foreign to a hideous maggot like you!” The snarl became a smirk on the younger Tico’s lips, red as the walls around her. No one would ever dare beat down her heart without a fight.

She was the Red Queen of her soul, had domain of herself.

Or so she thought.

The Resistance fighter was thrust into the air and held in place. The weightlessness of her body would have been pleasurable of not for the sinking dread in her gut as Snoke sneered at her from his black glass throne.

“You know nothing of ugliness, girl! Perhaps it is time I show you how ugly the Force can be!”

“Stop!” Armitage commanded in a weak whisper, praying to the stars that burned outside of the Supremacy that the Supreme Leader would listen.

His plea fell on insidious, deaf ears as Snoke clenched his outreached hand into a fist and Rose began to shriek as her body felt the searing pain of a thousand unseen lashings. She tried to contain her pain-filled screams, but her efforts to hold them in were in vain. Her body contorted in the air as she struggled against the invisible onslaught of Snoke’s rage.

“I said stop!” the former General cried out, raising his head to stare at the source of his continued abuse after he killed his father years before, “Stop this, and I’ll tell you what you want most.” He added in a resigned voice, knowing what he would inform the Supreme Leader of could break his dear Flower’s heart.

Snoke’s fury that he had unleashed on Rose stopped as suddenly as it began, and her cries ceased along with it. Her body hung limp in the air, but her eyes moved to look down at Hux who stared back into her own with emeralds filled with remorse over what he was about to do.

“And what would a useless traitor like you have to wager?”

Glaring at the deformed man who sat upon his shining throne, Armitage announced his offer, “I know where your precious Ben Solo is.” He stared deep into Snoke’s beady blue-white eyes as he spoke.

“Autumn...no...” Rose tried to beg her love to stop in hushed, tired breaths.

“My darling, I would send this entire galaxy into an endless night, I would kill every star in the sky, if it meant your life.”

“But...”

Hux huffed out a scoff, “I never cared about the cause, the Resistance, none of that ever mattered.” He looked up at Rose, the woman who illuminated his bleak, dark heart, “All I care about is you.” 

“Then if you care about the little vermin,” Snoke growled his interruption, “you best tell me _where Ben Solo is_!”

“Who.”

“What?” the Supreme Leader snapped at the traitor, slamming his other fist on the armrest of his throne.

Armitage turned his gaze to Snoke from his place below the throne. His green eyes shined brighter than ever as, for once, he felt he was truly doing the right thing.

“It is not a matter of _where_ , but rather _who_ Ben Solo is.”

“Tell me,” there was a hunger in Snoke’s voice that made Rose want to hurl as her body was released from his invisible grasp and she fell limp on the cool, black floor. And she welcomed the soothing chill that touched her bare skin, still burning from the Force’s infliction upon her.

“Your precious Ben has been traveling the Galaxy right under your misshapen nose as the Mandalorian bounty hunter Talyc ‘Black Beskar’ Solus!”

**

The Mythosaur had flown to the other side of Crait’s orbit after Rey spotted on the radar a ship speeding to the Raddus moments before. Within minutes the Kom’rk-class fighter was hailed by the bridge of the heavy cruiser.

“This is the Raddus, who are you and state your business,” a warbling muffled voice spoke through the comlink. Talyc instantly recognized it as his mother’s old friend Admiral Gial Ackbar.

“This is Talyc Solus of the Mythosaur. We were keeping watch on the other side of Crait’s orbit and saw a ship on our scanners heading towards the Raddus fast enough to raise our concerns.” The mandalorian informed the Mon Calamari on the other end of the link.

“Keeping watch? In case of what, exactly?”

“In case of an ambush.”

“Preposterous!” The Admiral huffed, “Our plans for this conference had been expertly carried out! The chances of an ambush are- Vice Admiral! General! Commander Dameron!? To what do I owe the- _What_!? Headed here!? Now!? Well, good thing there’s a damn Mandalorian out in the black for back up!”

Rey, Luke, Talyc, and Chewbacca stood by on the Mythosaur as they listened to the Mon Calamari’s banter through the comlink, wondering if the seasoned admiral was aware that the link was still open and they could hear everything he was saying on the other side.

“What’s going on?” Rey asked from her seat beside the Mythosaur’s lead pilot.

“It seems we were in the right to wait,” Talyc answered the scavenger. 

“It _seems_ like a bunch of old codgers are bickering over their next course of actions. Clearly whoever showed up to the Raddus was followed, and the First Order, the Empire- whatever they call themselves now, is on their way.” Luke corrected his nephew as he leaned in and placed his hands on the head rests of the pilots’ seats.

“How the kriff did you get all that?” Chewie growled his question from the wall he was leaning against.

“Hmph,” the Jedi scoffed at his old friend, “It doesn’t take the Force to listen to a conversation, Chewie.” 

The Wookie shook his head at the old man’s comment. “Humans and their need to talk,” he grumbled in his native language to Artoo who stood next to him.

_Bee-doop woo!_

“Language you oversized trash can on wheels!” Chewbacca barked to the astromech droid.

Having had enough of everyone’s distracting talks about old rebels and conversations, Talyc interrupted everyone by speaking into the comlink, “Admiral, can we get a status on the current situation?”

“This is _Vice_ Admiral Amilyn Holdo of the Raddus Fleet. Why are you here?”

“I have just explained to-”

“Then explain it to _me_!” The Vice Admiral cut off the mandalorian.

Rey cringed, whoever this Amilyn Holdo was, she did not take second-hand information with any merit. Luke blinked his eyes and shook his head with a grin, seeming to be quite familiar with the woman on the other end of the comlink.   
“She’s an ornery one. But also one hell of a strategist.” Luke whispered to his students, “You best tell her why we’re here, tincan.”

Rolling his eyes behind his visor, Talyc obliged his uncle’s suggestion, “ _Vice_ Admiral, we’re here to ensure the safety of the Resistance to the best of our abilities.”

“Under whose authority?”

“Under _mine_ , Amilyn!” Luke stated into the comlink, provoking a still quiet from the Raddus.

That same silence hung in the feed until Vice Admiral Holdo finally broke it.

“Skywalker? Is that really you?”

Amilyn took a step back from the communications panel on the bridge and turned to General Organa. Her eyes were wide and her lips parted with the initial shock of the voice she had not heard in almost three decades.

“Your brother is out in the black with the Mandalorian.”

“What?” Leia’s voice came out in a startled whisper. True, the voice was eerily familiar, but the younger Skywalker twin believed she was merely hearing a ghost from her past. One that chose to haunt her in a great time of stress. The Resistance General stepped to the communications panel and pressed the button to reconnect the feed.

“Luke?”

“In the flesh, sis. How have you been?” Her brother’s voice was soft and cautious. It had been so long, and the rift between them wide, since the loss of Ben.

“Don’t think our coincidental alliance means that I’m ready to offer forgiveness.” Her tone was calm, but firm.

“I’m not here to weave my way back into your life, Leia. The kids and I only want to make sure you and the Resistance are safe.”

“And we would have been,” Leia turned to shoot a glance at Poe before returning to the comlink, “but mistakes were made. All digressions aside, I’m glad you’re here. All three of you.”

There was a companionable quiet between the two siblings before one of the officers on the bridge shouted out, “Everyone! There’s a massive object approaching, and it’s coming in fast!”

“It seems the enemy has arrived,” Admiral Ackbar announced. “Ladies, what is our next course of action?”

“My fleet has been ordered to prepare for battle since Dameron’s arrival.” Holdo addressed the Mon Calamari and the General, “I will be taking my station down in the Hangar. Lieutenant Connix,” Kaydel turned her gaze to the violet haired Vice Admiral, “I would like your company in doing so. You may even learn some valuable lessons through experience.” 

“General?” Kaydel looked to Leia for guidance, weary she would be betraying her leader and abandoning her post beside her if she agreed to accompany the Vice Admiral.

Leia gave the young High Commander a warm smile and a nod, “That’s fine, Lieutenant. You’re going to be needed down in the hangar to manage the troops anyhow. Admiral Ackbar, the rest of High Command and myself will remain in the bridge in the meantime and try to talk our way out of this incoming threat.”

As the General finished her short speech, a massive Mega-class Star Dreadnought materialized before the Raddus, having slowed down out of light speed. The officers on the bridge watched through the transparisteel panels as the wedge shaped vessel hovered in the black like a looming omen of disaster as General Organa ordered the bridge to hail the Supremacy and open a com between them.


	41. The Battle of the Black

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pandemonium erupts as the Resistance and the First Order collide into battle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I deeply apologize for my lack of chapter last week. Work has been hectic as we are seeing a rapid increase in Covid-19 cases. The second shift team in my department has seen it in particular with 2 positive cases and about 10 others in quarantine.. My moral had been hit pretty hard to be honest.
> 
> In the future, if I miss a week know that I will do everything in my power to post the following week between the scheduled days. I will try to not miss more than two weeks. If in the event that I do, know that I may be sick and will try to get back into regular updates as soon as I recover.
> 
> Stay safe everyone. In the meantime, enjoy some good old fashioned Star Wars space battlin'

Leia and the others did not have to wait long.

A life size holo flickered into view before General Organa and the rest of High Command on the bridge of Captain Phasma, her blue wavering image standing with the straight stoic posture of a high raking First Order officer.

“General Leia Organa-Solo,” the chrome armored captain spoke through the holo, “The last Princess of the dead planet Alderaan and one of the finest woman warriors of the known Galaxy. Your reputation proceeds you.”

“As does yours, Captain.” Leia replied to her adversary in a calm, diplomatic voice.

“It’s _General_ now. It seems fate, the stars, or your precious Force has allowed us to meet as equals on the battlefield.”

“What are your intentions?” General Organa decided to cut the formalities and try to reason with the woman in the opposing ship.

“Our intentions are to find the Resistance,” Phasma announced to the members of the Raddus’ bridge, “and destroy it where it stands.” her words were cold and matter-of-fact as her introduction. “And it seems our objective has been met.”

The flickering holo of General Phasma faded away and the connection was severed. The chance for diplomacy came and left, leaving failure and determination in its wake. Outside the Raddus’ transparisteel panels a fleet of TIE fighters spawned from the Star Dreadnaught like a swarm of Kheilwar wasps.

In an instant Leia turned to the Vice Admiral and her Lieutenant. “Amilyn, get every fighter-class ship on this vessel out in the black and ready to strike!” She ordered with the fierce eyes of a Loth-wolf matriarch. As Vice Admiral Holdo and Lieutenant Connix passed the General, Leia grabbed ahold of Kaydel’s arm and pulled her close so she could whisper to the girl, “make sure _everyone_ gets off of this ship and down to Crait’s surface. Understood?”

“Yes, General,” The young Lieutenant whispered back.

“May the Force be with you, Kaydel, and be safe.”

“And you as well, General.” Kaydel Connix blinked away her tears and marched off of the bridge to follow Vice Admiral Holdo to the Hangar below.

“Dameron,” General Organa called out to the last of her group. 

“Yes, General.”

“As of right now, you’re being promoted to Head Commander of our pilots and you will also be appointed leader of the Light Squadron. Your objective is to protect the Raddus,” Leia sauntered to the pilot, she looked in his eyes with her own that burned with the fires of war, “along with ensuring that all civilian ships possible make it down to Crait. You failed me once, Poe, I expect you not to fail me a second time.”

Poe was dumbfounded, so much so that he could only nod. Not only because of his sudden promotion,, but the change in Leia Organa's demeanor. So this was the famous Rebel Princess Han would talk about with a nostalgic smile on his face after a shot (or five) from his stash of Corellian whiskey.

_“Y’all don’t know her like I know her! I’ve seen Leia in her true Skywalker fury back in the days of the War! And believe me, she was a force to be reckoned with!”_

_Beautiful and deadly_ , was that not how Han described his wife when anyone asked him about what she was like in her youth? It seemed to Poe Dameron that those three words still rang true.

“Make Han and Shara proud out there, Dameron!”

“I will!” Poe answered with the same fiery determination as the older woman before him before he turned around and ran to the hanger. A grin curled his lips as he pondered about how infectious the General’s drive and moxie seemed to be.

**

“Bee-bee!”

_Whew! Beep beep!_

The round orange and white astromech droid rolled down the Millennium Falcon’s gangplank on it’s spherical body, beeping and whistling it’s mechanical little sing-song as she headed toward her human companion whom she was searching for throughout the hangar.

“Ready to fly?”

_Bleep!_

The pilot and his droid hurried to the X-wing that was getting prepped for him. The starfighter was not the beloved one he lost to Jawas back on Jakku, but Poe would make due with the replacement.

“Hey, Dameron!” 

Poe turned around to the woman’s voice that called his name, only to be met with a fist crashing into his jaw with a force strong enough to send him falling backwards onto the floor of the hangar. He looked up to see Paige Tico standing over him with her flying gear on with the exception of her helmet that was nestled in the crook of her elbow.

“There’ll be more where _that_ came from if Rose has a single hair on her head out of place when we bring her back!”

“Paige.”

Poe Dameron and the older Tico sister stared as Lieutenant Connix stormed her way to them with a ferocity that Poe had no idea the young officer possessed. She grabbed the woman pilot by the arm and turned her around so they faced each other.

“Who the kark do you think you are, striking your commander?!”

“That _commander_ is why we’re throwing our lives out into the black!”

“And you think hitting him will bring Rose back in one piece!?” Kaydel shouted in a booming voice that took Dameron by surprise given the petite and quiet nature of the Lieutenant. “Save your anger for the creatures who deserve it.”

What took place next gave Poe the shock of his life, so much so that if he were not already on the floor of the hangar, the softest breeze or the light touch of a speck of dust would have sent him falling down. Kaydel Connix brushed her hand along Paige’s cheek and told her, “I don’t want what could be our last conversation to be a fight,”

The fighter pilot lowered her eyes and held the Lieutenant’s hand in her own before bringing it up to her lips to kiss her wrist. She nodded in agreement, and Kaydel gave her a small smile. 

Paige turned to Poe, and Lieutenant Connix left to pursue her other duties in the hangar.

“Suit up, Dameron, I’ve got two women to fight for and one’s waiting for me out in the black!”

After than the older Tico ran to her own X-wing and began to climb into the cockpit. Poe sat next to BB-8, who rolled up to him, still surprised by what he saw. He had no idea, the Lieutenant and the gunner?

_Wee-weep! Woo!_

“Wait!? You _knew_ about this!?”

_Mii-beep-bop! Wii!_

Poe Dameron rolled his eyes, of course _everyone_ knew but him. “Even Rose?” the pilot asked his droid friend.

_Moop!_

He scoffed at BB-8, “Well, that makes two of us!”

_Beep-beep! Waa-woo!_

“Alright, alright. Let’s go, buddy. We’ve got a fight to win.”

_Woo!_

**

“By Rii’a’s wrath! We’re outnumbered!” Rey gasped, “Is this thing armed!?”

“Did you _really_ just ask a _Mandalorian_ if his ship was armed!?” Luke exclaimed at his student with waving hands. Talyc really wondered if the “Skywalker dramatics”; as his father always called it, were indeed as hereditary as their connection to the Force.

_Like your Grandfather._

The mandalorain shook his head and focused on the starscape outside of the Mythosaur. He watched as the Resistance fleet had begun to swarm out of the Raddus. It could not be. Talyc had gone ten peaceful, silent years without those horrible voices to plague his mind. Why now?

“Talyc, are you alright?”

Rey. The one voice in the Galaxy that brought light to the blackest darkness. To know she felt his sudden uneasiness and only desired to help warmed his heart. But with such warmth, his soul also began to ache. If he were to tell her why he felt the way he did, that voices Talyc believed were long dead with his old life had come back to haunt him, would she become frightened of him? Would Rey of Jakku feel lied to and see Talyc as he saw himself? Would she believe Talyc was no longer her Mandalorian friend with whom she gave all her trust, but only a monster posing as a man?

“To answer your question, this beast is armed to the teeth,” the mandalorian tried to divert his thoughts, “I’ll need the R2 unit to head to the astromech station. Luke and Chewbacca, there’s two rear gunner stations down the trap doors outside of the cockpit by the galley.” 

The heat of a calloused hand covered his own armored one that held onto the flight controls with a grip so tight his wrist quivered. The mandalorian was pulled from his sinking dark thoughts as he turned to the woman who made his heart sing to see her holding his hand.

“You don’t have to say anything. Just know that I’m here, with you, no matter what happens.”

The ache grew into a searing pain upon hearing her vow of loyalty. To him of all the peoples and creatures of the Galaxy.

_She will leave._

_They all leave, Ben._

_One by one._

_Until all that remains is us!_

The voices hissed their disapproval when Talyc turned his hand away from the flight control to take Rey’s hand in his and held onto it tight; afraid that is he were to let go, the scavenger would disappear and he would be alone again.

He feared the voices inside his heart would be right.

Rey looked ahead at the Supremacy, she narrowed her eyes at the eyesore of a ship that hovered before her. She too heard the whispers that called to Ben from the depths of evil, and felt a slight pain of rejection knowing he was afraid to tell her. But that pain transformed into resolve as solid as the beskar armor he wore. The scavenger stared at the ominous vessel in the black, suspicions rising in her heart over what monsters lurked within its quandanium steel walls. 

That was when the first shot was fired, leading to a tumultuous barrage of flashing plasma bolts, and lasers that flew across the black in neon streams of blue, red, yellow and green. Luke and Chewbacca ran to their stations and once they had settled into their seats the two seasoned rebels began firing at enemy ships while Rey and Talyc frantically monitored and set their controls to dodge and weave around incoming missiles and cannon fire. The two were unaware of how synchronized they were as the Mythosaur soared through battle like a black and green winged spirit of vengeance and justice.

“Artoo, how are you holding up out there?” Rey shouted as she steered her controls and pressed triggers to fire shots at TIE fighters that sped through the starscape.

_WOOOOOO!_

The veteran astromech droid wailed from outside the Mythosaur as the two pilots barrel rolled and zig-zagged through the black, avoiding explosions of enemy starfighters that blossomed like flowers formed of fire and steel before fading into the abyss. The pilots’ bodies thrusting to and fro in their seats from the inertia of their reckless flying.

This was Ben Solo’s greatest dream, this was what made him a true Skywalker. It was never about the Force, never about the battle, but the thrill of the flight!

But there was no time for reveling in exhilaration. People were dying, others were killing, their blood offerings sublimating in the vacuum of space; sons, wives, fathers and friends, no one was granted amnesty by the unknown war gods’ touch of death around them. The only option everyone had was to fly their damnedest so that they just might fly another day.

Talyc saw through the eyes of the Force a troop of three TIE’s soaring towards the Raddus. With no effort, he and Rey changed their course to defend the massive ship from the hovering First Order fighters that were heading for the helm.

That was when Rey, Talyc, and Luke saw her with their hearts' eyes. They _felt_ her.

Leia Organa, along with the rest of High Command and the crew members of the bridge were defending the Raddus to the best of their abilities, but such a massive vessel was sluggish in speed and reaction time, its weapons were only proficient in long distance accuracy, and the speeding TIE’s were like kirik flies hovering over a pregnant bantha. The Raddus was at a grave disadvantage. 

On instinct, the other X-wings followed the Mythosaur’s lead and flew in standard battle formation to aid the Raddus’ defenses. Some were gunned down and perished in a blaze as others avenged the loss by balancing death’s scales of good and evil with more souls reaped by the voids of space.

Somewhere in the Force, beyond the realm of the living, a presence was unpleased. The pilots of the Mythosaur could hear their outcry on the cosmic winds of the Force, bellowing his outrage from a world outside of their existence over the senseless loss of life and blood shed.

_Not_ _‘beyond’_ _, child, but_ between _._

“Who the kriff was that!?” Rey asked while she shot down First Order fighters.

Talyc turned his head to the Scavenger so quick that he nearly gave himself whiplash, “You heard that too!?” 

The momentary distraction caused the Mythosaur to steer too far to the right as Rey fired her front laser at the TIE fighter. Though the opposing ship was hit, Rey’s shot blew the wing off of the spherical shaped starfighter, causing it to careen through the black until it knocked out one of the four wings on a nearby X-wing that had come to help protect the Raddus. The pilot in the Resistance starfighter managed to gun down the First Order fighter despite the damage they sustained from the collision.

“Damn it! I’ve been hit!” A voice shouted through the com channels

“Pull back!” Rey answered aloud into the Mythosaur’s cockpit.

“Tico, get back to the Raddus! That’s an order!” Poe’s voice added to the pandemonium on the comlink feed.

‘Tico,’ Rey thought, recalling Rose’s kindness and happy, welcoming demeanor when she met her on D’Qar.

“Don’t tell me what to do, Dameron! This bird still has some fight in her left!”

Rey and Talyc saw the damaged X-wing whip around to dodge enemy ships in a chaotic manner, but they both soon noticed the Resistance fighter was not firing her weapons.

“Haar'chak! _Damn it!_ That X-wing isn’t firing!” The mandalorian snapped into the comlink, “I think the barrel’s damaged! It’s only a matter of time before the plasma generators inside the blasters overload and that X-wing'll be space dust!”

“I know,” the voice from the damaged X-wing admitted in a voice resounding with a quiet calm of acceptance. One that made everyone’s hearts sink into their bellies, leaving hollow pits behind in their chests.

**

“No,” Kaydel Connix exhaled in a whisper in the bight white hangar as others stood around her listening to the battle feed. Worry marked their faces as they realized what would happen.

“Kay, it’s alright.” Paige said through the link, “I still have one last trick up my sleeve.”

The young lieutenant’s brown eyes widened as they darted around the open battlefield that she was separated from by a force-shield. Searching through the chaotic black void for her newfound love. Stars, it had only just begun to blossom.

The High Command officer was also certain that it was about to end.

“Listen, there’s two expert fliers left of the TIE’s that are attacking the bridge. Our leaders are up there. I have to do something!”

“You fool!”

“Kay, if I’m gonna die out here, I’m takin’ one of these bastards with me!”

Lieutenant Connix closed her eyes and let the tears roll down her cheeks, acceptance of her lonely future flowed through her as freely as the fluid from her eyes. Like waves crashing to shore during a storm, threatening to pull her under in a riptide of despair.

“Kaydel.”

“Paige?”

“Take care of Rose, and know that I love you.” There was a resolve in the older Tico’s voice that made the rest of the world silent around the Lieutenant, she could feel the gunner close her eyes as the X-wing dashed into one of the TIE’s in an explosion of brilliance outside of the hangar. 

Kaydel Connix dropped to her knees, fellow officers rushed to tend to her as she mourned the loss of Paige Tico. Her shaking breaths the only sound that resonated through the hangar as she held back the sobs that desired to break past her lips from her lungs, and from her sorrow emerged an unbound fury.

“Send out everyone we have,” the Lieutenant commanded in a quivering voice full of determination. “Get the rest of the fighters on the field to defend the peaceful attendants as they descend to Crait. Protecting the Resistance is now our top priority. That’s an order from your current acting commander!” Kaydel stared at the war zone beyond the ship, no longer able to spot the remains of the X-wing whom the pilot within gave her life defending the Raddus. And all that was left of their budding romance would forever sit unresolved inside her heart. 

A short distance away Amilyn Holdo stood silent as she observed the tragedies of war consume yet another youth’s dreams of finer things such as love and beauty. Wondering what exactly could she do to stop its insatiable hunger.

**

“What just happened?” Luke shouted as he burst into the cockpit. Talyc and Rey tried to maintain their focus on the battle around them, but their minds continued to drift to the conversation between Paige Tico and Lieutenant Connix, and the sacrifice the former made for everyone.

The gunner gave her life and declared her love before doing so. The two pilots could only come to one conclusion, that despite its beauty, there was a mocking cruelty in the event that took place that left a bad taste in their mouths. 

“One of the gunners flew into an opposing fighter. Their plasma generators were overloading due to a firing malfunction in the blasters.” Rey said.

“She saw death in her future, faced it head on, and died a warrior’s death.” Talyc added.

Luke took a deep breath and sighed. No matter how many times he fought in the black, the pain never dulled over the loss of a fellow pilot during battle.

“I have a bad feeling about all of this. I’m staying up here.” Luke Skywalker could not shake the feeling that something terrible was about to happen. All he could see was a vision of a braid unraveling and long brown hair drifting weightless in space, surrounded by shimmering flakes of broken shards of transparisteel.

_Skywalker has no faith in you, Ben._

_He believes you will fail._

Both Rey and Talyc ignored the whispers that growled in the mandalorian’s mind and tailed the last of the TIE-fighters as it tried to weave it’s way closer to the Raddus’ bridge to fire at the Resistance High Commanders that were held within.

_Why save her if she only abandoned you?_

Talyc’s breath was stuck in his lungs. He was, once again, the frightened boy reaching out to his mother for comfort; only to grasp emptiness in his small hands and shattering heart. His vision blurred around him and his heart pounded so hard he could feel it rattle his beskar breastplate.

“Talyc, you need to breathe,” Luke consoled him with a firm comforting hand on his shoulder.

_You’re not alone, child._ I’m _with you._

The mandalorian took control of the chaos in his mind and regained his focus so he could look ahead at the last TIE-fighter, but Rey screamed and Talyc watched in horror as the First Order starfighter was flying toward the Raddus without any intent to break away from its flight path. 

There was a ringing in Talyc’s ears, and the universe was silent as the void of space itself when he watched the TIE collide into the helm of the Raddus.

_Mom, no!_ Talyc cried out into the Force as he let go of his controls and held out his arms with clenched fists, concentrating on Leia’s Force-signature that was tossed from the ship.

On the Raddus Leia’s eyes grew wide and shined with tears as the incoming starfighter smashed into the transparisteel panels. She heard her son’s voice for the first time in long and heartbroken decade, screaming out to her fearful and desperate. The crew and High Command readied themselves for the end and Leia Organa uttered one last word as the TIE-fighter cracked and shattered through the transparisteel barrier, crashing into the bridge of the Raddus in a hot white explosion, followed by the vice like pull of the vacuum of space.

“Ben!”


	42. Titans of The Force

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After doing everything they could for Leia, Talyc is bound by his emotions to seek one thing; vengeance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter, wow, it was a doozie to write. But you won't be disappointed.
> 
> I hope...
> 
> The Mesh'la A'den is Rey’s staff that was made by Talyc.

Rey and Luke looked on in terror as the helm of the Raddus exploded before the force shield activated and contained the vaccum’s deathly pull of the black from outside the ship. Meanwhile Talyc continued to hold out his hands clenched tight into fists, his focus on whatever he was holding onto so intense that his body trembled with exertion.

“Pull her back,” he said, concentrating so hard he was struggling to speak.

“What?!” Rey asked as her eyes darted around the large pieces of wreckage outside of the Mythosaur.

“I said _pull her back_! She’s alive!” Talyc hollered in a fierce agonizing roar.

Immediately Rey felt her then, Leia was indeed alive, cocooned in Talyc’s grip by the Force, but her body kept drifting farther away from the Raddus and out into deep space. Her long hair flowing about her like slender streaks of bronze and silver silk ribbons. The scavenger and her teacher both held out their hands and with a unanimous cry aloud on the Mythosaur’s cockpit, they slowly pulled General Organa’s body back to the Raddus until she passed through the safety net of the ships force shield. 

“Dameron, get someone on the bridge of the Raddus! Leia’s alive! But she needs to be taken to a med bay right away!” Rey demanded through the communications feed to Poe’s X-wing.

“Roger that, Rey!” Poe answered before silence hung in the air of the Mythosaur.

Rey and Luke sighed in relief as Talyc sat in his chair. His body was shaking with an undeniable rage that vibrated the air around him; his breathing was erratic and shallow.

“Talyc,” the scavenger whispered to the mandalorian, approaching him like she would a wild vworkka trying to swipe her portions; deeply concerned about his state of mind after witnessing the near death of her mother, and the return of the whispers that slithered into his head once again. Rey feared that the man who hid behind the iron skin beside her was about to break.

The mandalorian heard nothing but his pulsating heart.

With the Force, buttons and switches were moving in front of Rey as if her station had been taken over by a ghost. Confusion turned to worry as she realized that the controls were being manipulated by Talyc as he manned his own. With reckless orchestration the Mythosaur was flown solely by the mandalorian as it sped straight into the Supremacy’s hangar through their force shield, skidding onto the duristeel floors shooting gold and red fountains of sparks throughout the bright shining silver bay. 

When the ship halted to a stop, the gangplank lowered and the titan of the Force in black armor stepped down with paced steps, rhythmic like a steady heartbeat, though his shook violently within his breast like a beast on the hunt, hungry for blood and marrow. 

He announced himself to the First Order without a single word before he raised a hand in the direction of the force shield and his fingers curled like claws as the Force ripped open a hole in the shield, and every stormtrooper and First Order officer on the Hangar was pushed out into the black. Just as they did to his mother, only no one- certainly not their precious Supreme Leader- would be there to save them from their excruciating demise.

The harbinger of death and revenge sauntered further into the ship as Rey and Luke followed out of the Mythosaur not long after. Rey ran after him on instinct as Luke remained behind. Fear began to settle in his belly seeing his nephew so deranged with focus. He feared whatever had been trying to pull him to the Dark Side may have finally won, and Ben solo was lost forever. 

No. Talyc was a strong willed Mandalorian. His honor drives him to protect his family by any means available. The Force had become merely a tool to do a greater good for himself and those he loved. Yoda had faith in Ben ten years ago, that his destiny was not with the Jedi, but with another faction that could show the grandson of Anakin Skywalker, the child of a rebel princess and a rogue smuggler, a better meaning to his life than the rigid bindings of the Light and Dark duality of the Force and the burdens they bared.

Maybe that was the flaw of the Jedi all along, that the Jedi’s absolutes corrupted the Jedi absolutely. Maybe that was why Rey and Talyc seemed to resist the pull of the darker aspects of the Force while acting on the instincts and emotions of their hearts. Because the truth of the matter was that the two had unique Force-signatures unlike anyone else Luke had ever trained, for their signatures were, for lack of a better word, gray. 

That was when Luke felt a Force-signature that reminded him of his old master Obi-wan. One that radiated light in the black dark sludge that was the corrupted Force throughout the Supremacy’s walls. The last Jedi decided to follow the light that shined like a beacon as he separated himself from his two students.

**

Talyc pulled his beskad from the armor plate on his thigh and held a blaster in his other hand, passing through the bright and winding hallways of the First Order’s flagship. Approaching stromtroopers and officers were left behind in lifeless bleeding heaps in the mandalorian’s wake. Rey followed, her staff in her hands and her lightsaber on her belt, any soldiers that somehow survived through Talyc’s onslaught were knocked unconscious by a swift crack to the skull with her blunt wooden weapon.

If she had her staff from Jakku, the fools would never wake from their steel induced sleep. 

“Where are we going?”

Talyc never answered the scavenger as they continued to walk side by side, disabling or slaying those who stood in their way by trying to halt their pursuit; until they finally stood before a large glossy black door. Rey and Talyc stood still as they felt the oozing darkness that swirled about from beyond the shining barricade.

The mandalorian did not bother with the lock panel and held his arms forward, as his hands clawed the air apart the door warped open with a howling wail of gnashing steel as the panels were crushed apart from each other. When he was finished, the misshapen doorway revealed red behind black.

The two warriors passed the mangled threshold and entered the red room in silence. Rey held her staff in both hands ready for the battle ahead, while Talyc tightened his grip on his beskad hilt, the Mandalorian iron sword covered in the blood of the First Order, the red iron singing her battle song and thirsty for more life to coat her gleaming edge. There was a rage within the mandalorian so savage and monstrous, he believed no amount of blood spilt would quench the beast that threatened to crawl out of the deepest shadows of his soul.

At the opposite end of the crimson throne room, there stood a black throne with the harrowing monstrosity of a man that lazily moved his gnarled hand about as the victims of his fury; two humans dressed in formal attire, hovered about in the air like celestial bodies orbiting around a pale dead sun.

“So nice of you to join us, Ben,” the mutilated form in golden robes cajoled in a voice that sounded almost sweet and welcoming, but deep down was laced with the most bitter of poisons.

“How do you know my name?” the mandalorian demanded an answer from the creature on the throne.

“My dear boy. Do you not recognize the voices who consoled you when you were lonely? The whispers of truth when you were _surrounded by liars_?”

“You mean the voices that tore me away from the misguided people who cared?” Talyc’s voice was quiet, but harbored an immeasurable amount of hatred in every word. “The very voices who thankfully abandoned me when I was deemed dead and no longer useful?”

“ _Abandoned_?” The Supreme Leader spoke his words that were tinged with the feigned sense of hurt, “My child, for ten years I have searched for you! Yearning to find you until these two lovers had found out your secret!”

“Liar,” the woman in red whispered in a pained moan. The creature posed as a man swept his arm across the air to sling the two people into the wall, but their bodies were stopped as Rey shot her arm out in their direction. The scavenger lowered them down to the ground, all accomplished while never taking her eyes off of the heinous monster before her. The mangled man ignored her; however, his entire focus being on the mandalorian as he tried to convince him of his lies.

“I have waited _so long_ for you to come home, Ben.” Snoke held out his frail thin arms out to Talyc as if waiting for an embrace of reunion. “To welcome my prodigal son, and prodigy with open, loving arms. To hold you as you _begged_ to be held by your _detestable_ parents who ignored you, and left you alone with only _me_ to console you.”

“No!” Talyc spat out in defiance. Home was with his clan, home was with Rey during this epic journey he had undertaken beside her.

The once soft marred features of the Supreme Leader’s face went rigid as a cruel glare flared in his pale blue eyes.

“You _dare_ defy me, boy!? You! Who has paraded around the Galaxy with a bunch of savages like a foolish child in a mask!? So forlorn without mommy and daddy that – Yes! Your dead father! Whose blood is stained on your very hands!” Snoke berated the mandalorian in a venomous voice, his fury over the man’s rejection reaching overwhelming limits. Spittle flew from his wretched mouth as he bared his teeth in anger while he seethed and hollered at Talyc, at Ben Solo within the armor shell. And the voices of the mandalorian’s childhood attacked his mind with more scathing insults.

_Pathetic child!_

_Murderer!_

_Your parents hated you, Ben Solo! And your inaction killed them both!_

_You are a burden, Ben, and utterly unworthy of love!_

_Sniveling brat!_

_Killer!_

_Skywalker regrets leaving you alive!_

_You are a disgrace to all Mandalorians!_

The onslaught on Talyc’s psyche was becoming too great to bear. He began to press his hand onto his helmet as he tried to shake away the thoughts that continued to plague him. His other hand clinging onto the bloody beskad so tight he could feel the hilt begin to give into the pressure of his hand. But just as he believed he was coming undone, Rey placed a soothing hand on his shoulder and said to him words that he longed to hear from anyone during his twenty-eight years of life.

“You’re worthy, Ben, and you’re not a burden.” The words were a soothing balm on his broken soul, cutting through the screaming voices of the Dark. Talyc lowered his hand and observed through his visor the vision that was Rey the unbroken, the mighty huntress of Jakku, as she stood in the shadows of evil and raised her chin like the bastard child of the desert that she was; defiant and unyielding. What he would give to look at her with unobstructed eyes and to whisper desperate songs of gratitude in her ear. 

The scavenger of Jakku stepped forward and approached Supreme Leader Snoke. She threw her staff aside, deciding that a weapon would not be needed to vanquish the evil before her, and spoke to the monster in golden silks as she marched on.

“You are a vile liar. To try and poison a man’s mind just to use his beautiful gifts is revolting,” Her voice was low and damning.

Snoke stood up from his place on the obsidian throne, “And who are _you_ to speak, Force-witch? Born from the disgusting union of a Nightsister who betrayed her way of life, and a Jedi who failed the Order before he even began his formal training! Parents who cast you away like a piece of garbage on a junkyard planet!”

‘Nightsister? Jedi?’ Rey thought, to think this old withering husk would try to convince her that the petty slander the spat out were truth!

“You think of me as so vulnerable that you can attempt to crack my foundations with more lies?” the scavenger had stopped walking but her body was pulled to the monstrous man whose gangly withered body towered over her when he stood from his throne. He smelled of pestilence as he cradled the scavengers face with a cold, hand that felt more like it belonged to a corpse. Snoke lifted her chin so Rey could look into the face of the man who would break her indomitable spirit.

“Little Dathomiri savage, what makes you believe in Ben Solo’s light? The pathetic spawn of a obsessive princess and a selfish scoundrel, born of a mistake made in the throws of victory; who is still _too good_ for a desert vole such as yourself! Why? Why do you insist on believing in something that _does not exist_?”

Rey stared into the eyes of evil, and her answer brought Ben Solo down to his knees as she announced her reasons. The mandalorian, the prince in disguise, had his breath stolen from his lungs as he tried to understand what he was hearing.

“Because my heart and mind are bound to him. We could be separated by an entire universe, and I know he would still walk beside me. I believe in Ben’s light because it is a light we share. And more than that, _I love him_!” Rey of Jakku declared to the Supreme Leader with squared shoulders and the posture of the proudest of queens and empresses

A menacing sneer slithered its way to Snoke’s pale, thin lips. “And that was your fatal mistake,” the Supreme Leader jeered in a crackling voice that breathed malice into the air.

Rey’s body was hoisted into the air as Snoke clenched his boney hand into a fist, and her flesh ignited in an invisible blaze that licked her skin with a burn that she could feel down to the very marrow of her bones. She screamed in agony into the red room as the Supreme Leader contorted her back so that she saw Talyc, whose body was forced to remain on his knees as he looked on, helpless and humiliated that he was powerless to save her. 

The scavenger saw in her mind- images placed by Snoke- of a dead woman with pale skin and silver hair, her face bore markings on the center of her forehead and along her cheek bones, and beside her the body of a man with the same skin tone as her own his hair an auburn red with streaks of gray, with a dusting of freckles on his face. And she saw a small version of herself being dragged away by the hair. She saw masked marauders claiming that she was the only thing of value in their possession.

Fighting with all her little body could Rey’s childhood self cried and begged and clawed at the air to return to the dead who were being left behind. 

“You tried to goad me and tell me lies were all I spoke, little Force-witch, but now the truth will be what breaks you!”

And Rey began to see images of the man and the woman alive telling her stories, and loving her dearly; the three of them a family born from two enemies turned survivors, the best of friends, and in time lovers. The pale woman who had the same amber eyes that Rey saw every time she gazed at her own reflection held her close and cradled her face as she said one word that brought tears to the scavenger’s eyes when she uttered them.

_Stardust_

And Rey realized there was a truth in the vile words Snoke had laced with lies. That her parents were who he claimed they were, but that they had no love for her was the farthest thing from the truth. The last thing she saw was her parents fight with everything they had, but the thieves were too many in number and the saddest truth was that sometimes weapons can indeed overpower magick and the Force.

 _To cast you aside like he said would be to throw ourselves away, Stardust._ Rey heard through the Force a woman’s voice that was familiar as the feeling she had believed in every marked day on Jakku.

 _Know that our deaths were not in vain, for you are alive now, and we as well within you, Rey._ She heard a man’s words that made her heart feel warmer and brighter than the sunniest days of Ahch-To. 

_Be brave, Stardust._

_We love you._

Rey of Jakku, the daughter of a Nightsister witch and a Jedi, screamed and cried in the throne room. Knowing that those whom she was ripped away from loved her so much that they died for her made her lonely life all the more pain-filled. The lashings of the Force’s unseen fire burned hotter throughout her being and a terrible realization dawned on her.

‘This is what it feels like to be violated,’ She concluded as her worst fears had become a terrifying reality.

“Shame on you for harming my students! _My children!_ ”

Snoke’s hand was wrenched loose by an unseen power as the familiar voice roared through the red throne room like a raging rancor. Talyc was released from the Supreme Leader’s grasp in the Force and Rey began to fall to the floor. Her body was stopped just above the floor when Talyc reached out with his hand and asked the Force to let her down without injury. Rey opened her tired eyes as Talyc turned to the source of the bellow, hoping to all who would hear their quiet pleas that it was really him. The scavenger hiccupped a sob and Ben smiled behind his buy’ce, never having been so glad to see Luke Skywalker enter the throne room. The Force surround him in Light as he stood in the center of the great red hall.

The wisest and last of the Force-sages left held his hand out to the Supreme Leader and shackling the creature in place as he spoke to his students.

“You’ve done well, kids. It’s not easy to confront darkness with brave hearts.”

“So much of your foolish mother’s heart beats in your chest, Skywalker!” Snoke growled as he struggled to move.

“That foolish heart brought my father back to the light.” Luke smirked with his bright blue eyes shining.

“But your dear nephew, whose heart splits in half before your eyes! What about him?”

Rey pushed herself from the glossy black floor of the throne room to look at Talyc, the plea in her amber irises asked the mandalorian the one question he was never asked.

 _What is it_ you _want?_ _Where do_ you _see yourself in all of this?_

The mandalorian knew his answer, he always had known. Since the moment he saw her on Jakku when she bumped into his shoulder in Niima Outpost, and when she broke the glass of his visor in the Cantina; allowing him to see, for the first time, the world in its truest form.

How a world with her in it was a colorful, beautiful one to see.

All Talyc Solus, the lost Prince of Alderaan Ben Solo, desired most in his heart was to walk through this life- unburdened with the trials and expectations of legacies; to stand beside the scavenger woman, known only as Rey, as nobodies. To be blissfully ignored and finally allowed to live on their terms

To share freedom with the woman who declared her love for him in their darkest hour, the woman who gave the light feeling in his heart a name he had been afraid to place. 

Talyc Solus of the Clan Din Djarin stood up, standing taller and stronger than he ever believed himself to be. Speaking his own declaration.

“No longer will I be prey to those who wish to use me! _I_ am the master of my own destiny!” He gazed at the scavenger, hoping she felt his eyes on her as he added, “Someone dear and very close to me has shown me this, and it is a lesson I will never forget.”

With those words, Rey of Jakku understood how deeply the mandalorian cared for her, and that the feelings she announced for all to hear were reciprocated. The purest serenity washed over her among the chaos that attempted to drown her; for Rey, the no one who was stolen from her parents and sold to the highest bidder was, for the first time since she was small, wanted. 

The scavenger stood up from the black floor, a deadly determination burned in her eyes as she called the Mesh’la A’den to her hand and took on an offensive stance she would save for the worst of Jakku’s marauders. The instant she did so the two young Force-users saw movement along the walls of crimson that surrounded them. There were eight of them, their red plastoid armor matched the walls so well their forms had blended in so seamlessly, that they were rendered invisible until they began to move. 

Talyc knew right away who the knights were as they sauntered around him and Rey. The warriors were none other than the infamous Praetorian Elite Guard. His grandfather had his own, as did every lord of the Old Empire and the First Order. The fighters were masters of discipline, and Talyc expected nothing less from the Supreme Leader’s personal knights.

The scavenger and the mandalorian stood before each other, the heat of the coming battle rising in their chest.

“Oya’ika, this may be the fight of our lives.” He said to her in a low timbre that made both their bodies quake with anticipation and something else they were still unfamiliar with. But deep down they knew it was similar to the burning pleasure of the passionate kiss they shared that day in the Temple and the lake.

Rey’s eyes burned with the flames of warrior’s vigor and her answer made Talyc smirk behind his buy’ce, “Victory is Life!”


	43. Bloody Blades and Broken Hearts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey, Talyc and Luke fight for their lives. Rose wakes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all! Thank you all as always. I'm on quarantine until Wednesday next week due to my co worker being a confirmed positive case. My test came back negative but our county health dept. Insists I stay home. So stay home I shall.
> 
> For the chapter, a kal is the mandalorian word for blade, in this instance a small knife.
> 
> If anyone comes across anything related to this story on their Twitter or Tumblr post a link to it in the comments. I would love to see it.
> 
> Enjoy.

With the fluidity and speed of seasoned warriors, Rey and Talyc turned their backs to each other to face the incoming knights of Snoke’s twisted court. The mandalorian gripped his beskad tight in his fist and puled from his belt his mother’s lightsaber handed down to him by Luke while Rey bared her teeth and twirled her staff, the Skywalker saber not forgotten on her hip, but withheld until it was needed. The two shouted their battle cries, fierce and loud enough to rattle the red room’s enameled steel walls as they parried blows and struck the red guards who attacked them. 

As the two students of Luke Skywalker fought on, the Jedi master drew his own lightsaber from his belt and ignited the blade, its green glow a dissonant contrast to the room’s crimson hue as he stood in Soresu formation.

“It seems your efforts have failed, Snoke. Just as Palpatine had failed before you.”

The Supreme Leader scowled at the Jedi as he pulled from his own belt an all too familiar hilt, one of silver and black design, the ventilation ports arranged on the bottom in vertical bars. Luke’s blue eyes grew wide when he saw the weapon in Snoke’s hand. The images of his visions raced through his skull, and the Jedi knew his time had come. 

“I know that look in your eyes, Skywalker. Those are the eyes of a man afraid of what he sees before him.”

Snoke ignited the lightsaber’s blade, his skeletal form glowing red from the plasma blades radiance. “Bleeding this crystal was no easy task. It fought me the same way your dear nephew fights me still. But in the end, its screams wailed through the Force like a sweet aria of pain as I broke it into submission.”

The Supreme Leader smiled with the disturbing cheshire grin of a man unhinged. “It was a shame to not hear Ben’s cries as I did the same to him!” Snoke snarled as he lunged towards Luke, swinging Ben Solo’s corrupted blade with a wild precision that was blocked by the Jedi Master’s equally skilled swordsmanship.

For a frail looking creature, the Supreme Leader was surprisingly agile and fierce. The two seasoned Force-users thrust and parried in a whirlwind of a duel as Rey and Talyc fought with the ferocity of the wild Mythosaurs long extinct. 

One by one, the red guard fell by the skull cracking strike of Rey’s staff, or the blood splattering swing of Talyc’s beskad. Then three praetorian guards ambushed the scavenger, the mandalorian ripped the staff from her hands with the Force and with the same mystic power tossed his iron sword and his mother’s lightsaber into her hands, catching the Mesh’la A’den in his own as Rey caught the two blades; all in the time of a fraction of a standard second.

When Rey caught the mandalorian and Jedi swords, she cut down the red fiends in a blaze of neon blue and shining steel like a goddess of fury unleashed. As Talyc swung and twirled the staff as if it were his signature weapon his whole life snapping the neck of another guard. During the fight he caught a glimpse of the woman he loved. She was magnificent, her skills with a lightsaber rivaled those of the high republic, her combat with the beskad in her left hand reminiscent of the mightiest of Mandalorians from generations past. Mere moments passed and the three guards were slain and laying on the throne room floor motionless and defeated.

Suddenly an armored arm gripped around the mandalorin’s neck, he instinctively dropped the staff and unsheathed a small kal from his belt, driving the blade into the praetorian guard’s gut. The red armored bastard was resilient and their grip on around Talyc’s neck tightened with a strangling pressure as another red knight crept forward with a vibroblade sparking its red light of immanent death, inching closer to the mandalorian’s jugular. The guard holding Talyc in place ready and willing to lose an arm in the name of victory.

“Ben!” Rey shouted as she threw the lightsaber back to the mandalorian.

By the grace of the Maker, Talyc caught the copper hilt after releasing his grip on the kal that buried itself in the red guard’s stomach. He ignited the blade as soon as the hilt reached his gloved hand, the blue light cutting through the neck and into their body, burning and destroying the guards heart and lungs from the inside. Rey held out the same free hand that once held the lightsaber she threw, pulling the final guard away from Talyc with the Force until the knight was close enough that the scavenger of Jakku, the last of the fabled Nightsisters of Dathomir impaled the red armored warrior through the spine with Talyc’s beskad. 

The grip on Talyc’s neck eased and the praetorian guard slumped back and fell to the floor dead with the others. Rey pushed the corpse of the final guard from the iron sword and the last if the knights fell. The smell of burnt flesh, melted plastoid, and fresh blood permeated the air like the thick smoke of ceremonial incense Luke would burn in the First Temple.

As did the crackling sounds of lightsabers crashing against each other and the hum of the Force weapons as they cut through the air. The two students observed their teacher whose green blade and brown robes swirled about the room in a masterful dance that juxtaposed Snoke golden silk robes and the corrupted red plasma blade clawing at the air with chaotic strikes. The Force-wielding swordsmen were the personifications of good and evil, light and dark, nature and the inorganic; both tied to the extreme ends of their spectrums, but equally matched.

Rey and Talyc stood idly by and watched, compelled by the Force to stay back and allow the duel of old Orders to finally settle their conflicts that have spanned many millennia.

And that conflict concluded with the blades of light piercing the chests of the masters of light and dark simultaneously. Sounds lost meaning and time slowed to a crawl as the two students witnessed Luke’s blue eyes grow wide with pain, and Snoke’s lips curl into a proud, pain filled grimace. 

The last Jedi turned to Rey and Talyc, his children in the Force he swore to protect. A promise broken once a decade ago he now made right on as best as he could. Without uttering a word from his lips he spoke to his best students he ever had the grace to teach.

_May the Force be with you both._

His eyes then met with his nephew’s, peering through iron and glass straight into Talyc’s soul and the old man did the strangest thing, Luke smiled the most serene simper and his eyes shined with unshed tears he held back for so long. Tears that finally fell at the sight of the man his only nephew had grown to become.

_I’m proud of you, Ben._

Luke Skywalker, a man finally at peace with his past mistakes, closed his eyes and in an instant his form vanished. His Jedi robes dropped to the floor of the throne room in a crumpled heap as Snoke extinguished the weapon in his hand. The Supreme Leader staggered back and forth due to his injury, believing himself the victor in the name of the Dark side of the Force.

Driven by something primal within her, Rey of Jakku bared her white teeth and called the copper lightsaber hilt to her hand from Talyc’s. The Nightsister daughter lunged at the Supreme Leader, igniting the blue blade to sever his hand from his arm and Ben Solo’s lightsaber fell to the ground, released from it’s captor’s amputated grip. Snoke grabbed at the cauterized wound with a bellow of anguish before he was pushed to his knees by the weight of the Force. Rey called the corrupted blade to her hand after she dropped the Beskad to the shining floor puddled with the blood of the red guard. Rey walked to the Supreme Leader with slow menacing and calculated steps, unbothered by the blood she stepped through that wicked onto her cloth boots.

The lost child of Jakku stood before the fallen leader of the First Order and ignited the lightsabers, unaware of the poetic justice that the slain son and the mourning mother’s hearts glowed in her hands when she did so. Snoke’s head raised to meet the eyes of his judge and executioner as she crossed the blue and red blades before his neck, casting a violet light on his marred face the closer they came to his throat, wrinkled and withered like the leaves of a dying tree.

“Little Nightsister, allow me to live and I could show you the ways of the Dark Side. You will gain power unimaginable.” Snoke's pale blue eyes darted about Rey's face, scanning her features in the hopes sympathy would soften them. “I see boundless potential inside you,” the old hideous man begged, “for _you are far stronger than you know_!”

Rey’s Dathomirian amber eyes darkened with vengeance. The monster before her abused Ben, he murdered Luke, and now he was trying to tempt _her_ of all people to seek power in Darkness!? She saw through his scheme and knew it was only a ploy, a petty attempt to save himself from death.

As he looked on, the Force showed Talyc a memory from the distant past of a Jedi, with a thin straight scar down his right temple, holding a man in the same position. The mandalorian felt an intense familiarity with the man with blonde curls. He then recognized the one of the lightsabers in his hands as the very one that was clipped to Rey’s belt unused, and Talyc realized that the man was none other than Anakin Skywalker. The man who had become the scourge of the Galaxy as Darth Vader.

Ben Solo's grandfather, and his family’s darkest secret.

The mandalorian heard an unseen voice utter a command from the shadows, low and grinding like rusted cogs in an ancient machine, and Talyc witnessed his grandfather behead the man who was being judged for an unknown failure. What the armored prince saw before him was one of the stepping stones that led to Anakin Skywalker’s descent to the Dark Side, and the moment he became the true apprentice of Darth Sidious.

“Rey, stop.” Talyc implored his love in a soft voice. But his plea fell on deaf ears.

“Rey! No!” Talyc roared as he reached for her in desperation knowing he was too far away to stop her. With a sweep of the scavenger’s arms the crossed blades of the mother and son burned through the flesh of Snoke’s neck until his hideous head was severed from his frail form, falling to the floor with a sickening thud. 

**

Rose Tico woke up in a familiar small bed, she sat up with a start and looked around the room.

Her room.

On Hays Minor.

The mechanic looked down at her dress, red and mildly revealing, before remembering the last place she was. 

A room as red as her dress.

A throne room.

And a man with bright red—Autumn!

Rose stood from the bed of her past. She skimmed the room, taking in every detail of the happiest place of her memories; an old rebel signet on her nightstand, odd shaped rocks from her endless days on the mine fields on her dresser, and old pieces of machinery she would tinker with in her free time cut about on the floor, before stepping to the door. She opened it, making the same creak the rusty hinges always cried She walked through her home long abandoned and destroyed. Down the narrow hallway was the bright light from the panel that illuminated the small kitchen. 

Same as always, two adjacent walls had wooden counters that contained the sink and food prep area. And the third wall was open, leading to the living room where she and her family watched old holodramas together. The last wall that connected to the hallway from where she came was bare with a few paintings she and Paige made when they were younger. Lives of freedom and fancy-free before they were old enough to work and help provide. 

Rose let her fingertips trail along the edge of the counter tops of the kitchen as he went to sit down at the round wooden table in the center of the small room, taking her seat in one of the wooden chairs that waited to be occupied for family dinners and games of dejarik in silent patience.

She sat down in the chair that sat before the pantry and cold storage at the end of the food prep counter.

Her father’s chair.

Rose slouched and leaned in on the table's surface, her forearms bracing her, and sighed. She could still smell the scent of dirt and hydraulic fluid that always flooded her nostrils when she entered her humble home. She momentarily bathed in the pools of nostalgia; if there was such thing as a paradise, Rose hoped to the Maker it smelled like the place where she was sitting.

“Hey, sis.”

Rose looked up and saw Paige leaning on the doorway to the hallway with her toned arms crossed in front of her chest. Wearing her usual white tank top and beige colored trousers held up with a simple bantha leather belt.

“Paige!” Rose stood up from the chair and ran to her sister, throwing her arms around the older Tico in a happy embrace. Paige lifted her sister up from the wooden floor and twirled her around the rustic kitchen like she would every time they reunited after Resistance missions.

The same way Paige always did when they were children.

“I was so scared I was never going to see you again!” Rose smiled at Paige with bright tear filled eyes.   
The older Tico’s smile faltered, and realization crept up through Rose’s heart. When Paige lowered her sister, Rose pulled herself away, just far enough to take a long look at her sister. “What happened?” The tone Rose spoke indicated that she already knew.

And the way Paige Tico turned away from her sister proved Rose right.

“No,” Rose sobbed as she shook her head. Whimpers grew into loud heaving wails when Paige answered with a slow nod.

The older Tico held her younger sister tight as she could and consoled her by stroking her finely curled hair. Both knowing that this would be the last conversation they would ever have. Paige pressed her forehead onto Rose’s, the gunner holding her sister’s face that was wet with tears in her hands.

“You have so much to live for, Rose, so much left to do. You need to go out there, sis, and save who you love.”

Paige pulled away to look into her sister’s eyes, “But first, you need to-”

Rose Tico opened her dark brown eyes, as the world of red came into view. She sprang back as the first object in her sight was the disembodied head of Supreme Leader Snoke. His beady blue eyes were dull and lifeless, his lips turned in a way that made his mangled face look as if her were afraid to die.

The mechanic in red sat up, her dress spilled around her like a puddle of blood on the black floor that reflected her image beneath like a dark mirror. Death had reaped the souls of many as the room was littered with the corpses of red armored soldiers. Rose’s eyes darted around the room until she found Armitage not far away beside her.

He was limp and unmoving. 

The Resistance spy and engineer crawled to him as fast has her beaten body could move, still burning with the ache from the pain she endured at the hands of the headless man who laid on the floor in two pieces. When Rose made it to the Former General of the First Order, she pulled Armitage to her lap and placed two fingers on the redhead’s neck to check his pulse.

Armitage’s flesh was warm and his heart was beating.

He was alive.

Rose sighed a large puff of air in relief. She heard a clangs of steel falling onto the floor. Pulling her out of her reverie, Rose looked up to see Rey of Jakku fall to her knees, following the lightsabers that had alerted Rose to the other presences in the throne room. The mechanic watched as Rey buried her face in her hands and cried.

The scavenger’s sobs and whimpers echoed on the red walls of the evil room. The Mandalorian Talyc Solus dropped his weapon and hurried to Rey, falling to his knees as he reached out and pulled the girl into his arms, slow and careful, treating her in a way that portrayed how much the Mandalorain was afraid for her. 

The Mandalorian who turned out to be the dead Prince of Alderaan Ben Solo.

How clever of the Galaxy to send the man whom Rose and Armitage betrayed as their savior. Rose could not help but think about the irony of the scene that had unfolded on the Supremacy as she observed its continuation.

“Rey,” Talyc whispered to the scavenger with a voice as soothing as he could muster. 

“It didn’t help,” Rey bawled between hiccupping sobs, “I took his life, but it still hurts!” She clawed at Talyc’s armor plates.

“I know,” the mandalorian consoled the woman he loved, bringing his hand up to run gloved fingers through her loose hair. He stared at the last bun hoping someday he would be the one to set it free from its elastic confines. Realizing he was offering the ghost of a touch through his armored hands.

Rey needed the man within.

She needed Ben.

Yet all Talyc could feel was guilt, for the girl of the desert would have never teetered on the event horizon of the Dark Side of the Force if their paths had never crossed.

“Death is Life, Oya’ika. Snoke lived the life of a monster, and died as monsters do.”

Deep down in his heart, Talyc wondered if he was doomed to the same fate.

“Skywalker; however, _tried_ to live as a hero on his path as a Jedi. By returning to the Force, she welcomed him with open arms _as_ one.” The mandalorian sucked in a shuttering breath as tears welled in the corners of his eyes, “Just as the Force is always with us, so now will he.”

As Rey continued to mourn the loss of her teacher, a man she had come to respect and see as found family with Chewbacca and Talyc on Ahch-To; giving her the one thing she thought she would never possess. The mandalorian felt her Force-signature grow and change, no longer was it bright with light, but the energy around her did not darken to a putrid shadow. The scavenger Rey had become a presence in the Force that was simply _alive_.

Alive in every sense that was admirable and honest.

Somewhere deep within him, something mysterious and infinite, Talyc had an urge to sweep Rey up and protect this newfound part of her by any means he could.

“Rey.”

The scavenger raised her chin to look up at the T-visor that concealed the man she loved behind it.

“Let’s leave this all behind. This eternal struggle of Good and Evil is not our burden to bear. We could let the past die, Oya’ika, let the future destroy itself as we run to the Galaxy’s future.”

Talyc knew what he was saying was cowardice. But if it meant saving Rey from a possible fate of succumbing to the Darkest part of the Force he would strip himself of his honor and armor. Talyc would gladly become damned as dar’manda for her sake.

More tears rolled down Rey’s cheeks and she shook her head in a wild way.

“No! This _is_ our burden, Ben. Not to choose to fight on one side or the other, but to end it forever. We can’t run away from this! I feel somewhere deep in my soul someone else already had and made things _so much worse_.”

The way the scavenger’s amber eyes stared into his through tinted glass, boring into his heart, he knew.

Force and the Maker be damned, when the woman was right, she was undoubtedly so!

The mandalorian’s shoulders sagged and he heaved a sigh as heavy as raw beskar. There was no way to escape his place in this war, his very blood was bound to it; in his mother’s, his father’s, and his uncle’s valiance, and, to start it all, his grandfather’s malice and fear. It was fate that Ben Solo would have to fulfill the awaited destiny of the mighty Skywalker blood that flowed in his veins and gave him life. The destiny unknown to all but his Grandfather Anakin in his youth before his descent to madness and ruin. 

What Ben Solo could not understand was why? What was it that bound Rey, the lost daughter of a Nightsister and a Jedi, to the mysterious prophecy of the Force’s Chosen One? It seemed the huntress of Jakku had her own legacy to uphold, and destiny to fulfill. 

One as curious as the Skywalkers’ Force begotten beginning.


	44. Death is Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn travels throughout the Supremacy and runs into many choice encounters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As usual thank you for reading and enjoy.

Finn had been running about like a madman, for how long he had no clue. He searched the brig and the minimum security holding cells the defector finally found stormtrooper SM-1115 still dressed in Finn’s resistance clothes and Poe's jacket. The First Order must have detained him for his lack of uniform thinking be was a Resistance operative. The young man with blonde curls was unharmed, but had an air of disappointment hovering about him. 

The defector opened the cell door and entered, removing the plastoid helmet when the unarmored stormtrooper stared at the visitor with worried eyes. Though Finn noticed SM-1115 huff a deep breath of relief, the defector was still compelled to ask, “Hey, bud, you ok? Did they hurt you?

The stormtrooper in Finn’s clothes shook his head and then lowered his eyes, “They found me, I’m really sorry.”

“You don’t need to be sorry; you did your best. I’m just glad you’re not hurt,” the rebel assured his downtrodden accomplice in his improvised plan that began on Cantonica. “You want your stuff back?”

The curly headed blonde with freckles and green eyes nodded before he stood up and took off the Resistance jacket. Finn and the trooper switched clothes and armor. When they were done, Finn dusted off his shoulders, he felt like himself again. Stars it felt good to be back in his informal gear. He looked back at the man he had mind tricked into helping him. The blonde ruffled his curls before staring at the white plastoid helmet that would make him a number again.

“I’m sorry I got you into this,” Finn said to the trooper.

The stormtrooper shook his head, “Don’t be, it was kind of fun. Until I got caught in the hanger and sent to the Supremacy. Snoke’s soldiers are a grumpy bunch.”

“The Resistance is always looking for new recruits. We could use people from the other side. You’re not the only one, I’m proof of that.”

“I know. There’s more of us like you than you realize, FN-2187. But I have friends here, I don’t wanna end up fighting ‘em.”

Finn nodded, understanding quite well what the other was telling him. He put a firm hand on the stormtrooper’s shoulder, “I get that, I really do. What’s your name, cadet?”

“You mean my number?”

“No,” the defector shook his head, “your name. Do you have one?”

The blonde smiled and rolled his eyes, “Promise not to laugh? It’s what my troop calls me.”

The look Finn gave the unmasked trooper was kind and assuring.

“My name’s Slappy.”

“ _Slappy_?”

Slappy smiled and giggled, “yeah.”

Finn chuckled to himself and smiled as well. He knew well that his brothers and sisters tried to make the best of their indentured servitude to the First Order, being closer to each other was the best way to accept the lives they were thrown into as children. The defector held onto the Key Armitage gave him tight in his hand, reminding him that some in the First Order were not so lucky to make friends who gave them silly nick names. Others endured so much worse from their own families. 

They were not the only ones wanting to break free by a long shot. 

“Alright, Slappy, take care of yourself, if the time comes and your brothers and sisters are with you, you know where to find us.”

“I don’t think-”

“Trust me. _You do_.” Finn interrupted with a smirk, before the two men left the cell and made their separate ways.

Running down the halls of the Supremacy, Finn hid the iron key in one of the many hidden pockets of Poe Dameron’s Resistance jacket. 

The pilot’s _lucky_ jacket. 

Finn needed all the luck he could get.

He barreled down more the duristeel hallways, and that was when Finn ran into Chewbacca who roared with joy at the unexpected encounter. The defector; on the other hand, tilted his head and scrunched his eyebrows together in confusion. 

“Chewie?!”

The Wookiee roared again, one that sounded more like a beastly laugh before he picked Finn up in a big furry hug.

“Man am I glad to see you, Fuzzball!”

“Watch it, cub!” Chewie growled playfully in Shyriiwook as he put the defector back down on the ground.

“So you’re the one shining a light on all this darkness.” An unfamiliar voice spoke in a calm, knowing tone.

Finn looked around Chewie to find a scruffy bearded man in brown robes who had the brightest blue eyes and a lightsaber on his hip.

“Do I know you?” The defector asked the mysterious Jedi who sauntered to him and Chewbacca.

The old man smiled and shook his head, “No, but I can tell you know my sister. She training you?”

The apprentice’s eyes grew wide and his mouth hung agape, “You’re Luke Skywalker?”

The bearded man smiled through his pursed lips and nodded. 

“Then that means-”

“They’re here too, but they need me. I just wanted see for myself who held the future of the Jedi in his hands.” The last Jedi smiled at Finn, happy with the future that the young man would lead the Order to, “I’ll see you around, kid.” Luke added when he turned around and headed in the opposite direction.

As Chewbacca and Finn continued traveling the Supremacy’s winding hallways the Wookiee told the defector to comm the Raddus and check on Leia. When he did so, Finn was both terrified and relieved upon hearing the news of his teacher’s survival of the explosion on the bridge. Their trek through the First Order’s flagship surged on, and that was when Finn realized a painful truth

They were lost.

“I thought you said you knew your way around this giant bastard of a ship!” Chewie grumbled with the gravel of frustration in his animal voice.

And then Finn remembered, the Supremacy was a Star _Dreadnought_ not a Star _Destroyer_. 

“How was I supposed to remember the differences between a Destroyer and a Dreadnought when I haven’t been in the Order for the last how many months, Chewie!?” Finn snipped back at the Wookiee.

“If you followed your training correctly and never left a traitor, FN-2187, you most likely would have never forgotten such arbitrary knowledge.”

Finn’s blood chilled in his veins, he knew that icy voice. It still haunted his dreams. The defector turned to see the shining chrome plated plastoid armor of his former captain.

“Who the kark is that?” Chewie growled in his native language while he turned to Finn, “She know you?”

Phasma pointed her blaster rifle at the Wookiee and her voice came from her vocoder in an authoritative snarl, “Silence your animal, FN-2187, or I will.”

Chewbacca of Kashyyyk aimed his blaster bow at the female stormtrooper. “Call _me_ an animal!” He barked fiercely before he whispered to Finn in a low growl, “Gimme the word, Finn, and I’ll gladly shoot!”

Everyone around him was so willing to shoot; so willing to kill. Finn did not share the same sentiment, deep down the truth was he never had. All he could do was ask himself one question.

Why?

During his unease, Finn heard through the whispers of the Light the voices of Jedi long ago. All of them, in a chorus of many volumes and languages, said the same thing.

_We are keepers of Peace._

Finn stepped towards Phasma, compelled by the old ways of the Jedi to end confrontations without violence. 

No longer would he be a pawn of War, but an emissary of Peace.

With each step the defector took, the Force showed him the images of a young blonde woman who had done the most atrocious things in order to survive the hell that was her home planet. Maybe she was too far gone in the ways of bloodshed and brutality, too corrupted by the cruelty of the Galaxy.

But, damn it, Finn would try.

Poe believed in Finn’s ability to change on Jakku. When the pilot looked into the eyeless visor with kind brown eyes full of hope and an unyielding faith in the greater good, Finn felt a shift in his heart that began a cascade of growth and self-discovery he would never regret. Rey believed in him when she grabbed his hand and led him to safety in Niima Outpost. Han believed in him, a fact proven when the old smuggler came back to save the defector; who stared in the hollow eyes of death head on at the end of Hux’s blaster. 

Even Talyc; who felt Finn’s connection to the Force before he himself realized the strength he had within, was quick to alter his intentions during his negotiations with the former First Order General.

Finn would not let their faith in the good of the Galaxy to end with him, it was only fair to try and extend that light to another.

“FN-2187, what do you think you’re doing?” Phasma asked in a low, deadly command.

“ _Finn_ , Captain, my name is Finn,” He answered in a calm serene voice.

“ _General_ , my rank is General,” Phasma mocked in the same low tone as she aimed her rifle at the traitor, who inched closer to her with each step. The beast behind him continued to hold his blaster bow in her direction.

“I’ve seen it, _General_ ; your pain, your drive, your treachery and betrayal.” Finn smiled, his dark eyes were warm deep pools of tranquility when he stopped, standing just a few feet away from his former commanding officer who still aimed her blaster rifle at his chest. “But it’s never too late, Phasma, you don’t have to be bound by your past. None of us-”

General Phasma shot her weapon.

The bolt hit Finn in the shoulder despite the barrel being pointed to his heart, a miracle of his and the Force’s bidding. The shock of the shot at point-blank range, along with the pain of plasma searing through his skin, caused the defector to throw out his hand. And the Force, complying with the young Jedi’s prayer for protection, pushed the General with unexpected strength and velocity down the hall until her body collided with the duristeel panels that did not give under her weight. Her bones crushed, and her organs lacerated from the impact. The armored woman fell to the floor, gasping for air to fill her punctured lungs.

Finn stared at the sight, and a horror settled in his soul.

Maker, what had he done?

Finn ran to his former Captain, he knelt down before her and with a gentleness that was too little too late, he grabbed Phasma's helmet and pulled it off of her head. The blonde woman's ice blue eyes tried to look around in a confused daze before settling onto Finn’s worried stare. She coughed and blood sputtered from her mouth.

“When the _kark_ did you learn to do that?” the dying General stuttered between rasping breaths.

Finn did not answer, too overcome with guilt. This was not what he wanted, this was not how he wanted this to unfold.

“Ren could have made a knight out of you. Snoke could have taken you in as his apprentice.” Phasma stopped speaking so she could laugh, but was cut off by a grunting wince through clenched teeth. “But no,” she continued while glowering at her former soldier with bitter eyes full of contempt, “you ran off, and became nothing but scum.”

Even while facing death itself, the woman was still cold as ice and hard as stone. Finn shook his head. He pitied her, how much did Phasma have to hurt before becoming so broken and hopeless?

A shake become a nod when he realized his former captain may have been onto something, “You’re right, I am scum,” the Jedi in training agreed as he could feel the General’s soul begin to separate from her flesh, “Rebel scum.”

Phasma choked out a scoff before the light of life faded from her blue eyes, a rattling breath escaped her thin pale lips stained red with her own blood, and her body slumped limp against the wall that helped in ending her life; and she relaxed into her final rest. 

General Phasma of the Fist Order was dead. Her former cadet, the defector FN-2187, the rebel Jedi known as Finn, had killed her.

Finn sighed and, with a steady hand, he closed the General’s eyes; so that she may at least sleep with dignity. He lowered his head, full of shame and regret over his actions until Chewbacca pulled him from his reverie.

“The Force is a strange beast,” the Wookiee said in Shyriiwook as he lowered himself to Finn’s level and placed a large paw on his comrade’s shoulder, “sometimes it pounces in fury like a mother rancor. Even when guided by the most virtuous of Jedi. C’mon.”

Chewbacca stood up and held out his paw to Finn, who looked up at the Wookiee with eyes full of sorrow. But the defector soon nodded; understanding through the Force that his friend had seen great, beautiful, and terrible things with the mystical power that possessed the Galaxy. What Chewbacca had witnessed Finn do was no exception.

Finn took Chewie’s hand and with ease was pulled up to his feet. The Resistance fighters ran until all they could hear was their hearts beating in their ears and sweat drenched the hair on their heads before they found a mangled door. One that was torn open and crumpled like pieces of flimsiplast sheets.

“Holy fiery hells of Mustafar. Who did this?” Chewbacca mumbled softly in his beast tongue.

“I have no idea, Chewie, but whoever did this, they were in tremendous pain.” Finn answered his Wookiee friend with a slow shake of his head before he stepped through the broken doors of the throne room.

The Force howled in agony; death, anger, and heartache swirled around Finn with every step further into the red room. The eye of the storm circled around Rey and Talyc, who sat huddled together on the throne room floor. They held each other close as if they feared that when they let go, the world would pull them apart forever.

“Commander Tico!” Chewie howled aloud as he ran to Rose with big heavy stomps. He knelt down to his friend; who sat with an unconscious man’s head and shoulders on her lap, and placed a gentle paw on her shoulder. Rose ignored the tickle of the Wookiee’s fur on her bare skin as she continued to hold the unconscious man in her lap. 

Finn pulled his focus to his best friend and ran to Rose and Chewie. The Jedi apprentice met Rose, sitting beside her on the floor. 

“Rose, we gotta get out of here.” 

Rose Tico looked into her friend’s eyes, tears stained her cheeks, “We can’t just leave him!” She whispered, too tired and drained to raise her voice. Putting as much every as she could into stroking Armitage’s soft hair from his face.

“Yes we can,” the Wookiee grumbled.

“ _Chewie_!” Finn scolded the old Rebel fighter before returning his attention to Rose, “Can you stand?” 

Rose lowered Hux’s head to the smooth floor and she made an attempt to push herself up to stand. Her muscles were so weak from exhaustion; between the stress of the last hours and Snoke’s torture until Rey and Talyc had intervened, the mechanic could not hold herself up and she fell back to the floor.

And Chewbacca could only carry one person.

Rose slammed her fist on the glossy steel floor and a sob escaped her. Tears dropped from her closed eyes to the black floor in small splatters. She gritted her teeth in anger at her weakness until a cool hand covered her fist, and the spy relaxed and opened her eyes.

“It’s alright, darling, you should go.”

Rose turned to the voice that helped her through countless dark and lonely nights while hiding from the First Order. Armitage’s green eyes were soft and his smile was small but serene as he took a long look at the woman beside him. The one who showed him that his ability to love was not killed off by his father and Snoke. Committing to memory every feature, from each strand of her black hair, every hue that combined to make her olive skin tone, down to every single line and contour that shaped her lovely face.

“I can’t leave you. They’ll kill you if you somehow don’t die here.” There was a finality in Rose’s voice. After losing her parents and her friends to the war she fought in, the mechanic was accepting and, regretfully, numb to loss.

Armitage gave her fist a squeeze and he tried to smile, “My Flower, have you no faith in my obstinacy?”

Rose chocked out a small laugh. Autumn Leaves did everything in his power to sit up just enough so that he could caress his love’s cheek, wiping away the stream of tears that had flowed down her face.

“Go, love, I need you to go.”

The Resistance mechanic and spy nodded, Chewbacca bent down and scooped up her body in his warm furry arms. Too tired and heartbroken to say goodbye; Rose Tico, the Flower Queen of the Resistance, simply locked eyes with the former general, whose voice was hope itself, for as long as she could until Chewbacca passed the broken doors of the throne room and the view of Armitage disappeared.

Once his friends were gone, Finn stood up and glanced down at his former superior, “I shouldn’t help you, but for her, I will.”

Hux exhaled through his pointed nose, “You’re a free man, FN-2187, you can do whatever you please. Because of that, I envy you.” The redhead’s shining green eyes were pleading when he added, “Take care of Rose, she’s royalty you know.”

“Yeah,” Finn smiled with a chuckle, “a royal pain in my ass.” The defector paused for a moment. “Goodbye, General.”

“Armitage.” The song of a kitchen woman corrected. “I’m only a man now. Now get out of here, and allow me to die like one.”

The Jedi acknowledged the man accepting his fate with a solemn nod, and then he thought of an idea. Hux would not die on this awful ship, Finn would make sure of it.

For Rose.

“Finn! Finn, do you hear me?” Poe’s voice interrupted his thoughts. 

The former stormtrooper pulled the comlink from the breast pocket of the pilot’s lucky jacket, “Poe, I’m here.” He could feel Dameron’s unease through the Force, “What’s wrong?”

“Shit, where do I start!? Leia’s in med stasis, she and a medical team are on their way to Crait! Holdo’s gone rogue and there’s radio silence on the Raddus! I’m assuming everyone on ship has evacuated! And Connie’s thinkin’ the Vice-Admiral’s gonna do something stupid like ram the Raddus into the Supremacy!” Poe stammered through the comlink as quick as he could.

“Shit!”

“Shit is right! Now get everyone out of there!” Poe shouted before the feed was cut. 

Finn turned to Rey and Talyc. The two seemed to be in a trance as the Force moved around them. Their power in the Force was both beautiful and unnerving. “Talyc! Rey!”

The Mandalorian was pulled back into the present situation, his head turned to Finn.

“We gotta go! This ship’s about to be stardust!” Former trooper announced to his fellow Force-users.

Rey’s eyelashes fluttered upon hearing the words and her eyes grew wide. _Stardust_? Why did that word feel so _familiar_? 

And then she remembered the face of the silver haired Dathomirian with amber eyes from her visions.

The scavenger of Jakku stoop up, her balance was shaky as she staggered to Luke’s empty robes that were piled on the floor. Rey bent down to pick up his lightsaber, its green kyber crystal within wailing over the loss of its master. The last Nightsister held the dark metal hilt in her hand as she sent the copper one that was identical in style back to Talyc with the Force. She then called Ben Solo’s corrupted blade to her own outstretched hand.

Not a word was spoken as Rey walked away from the battlefield that was the thorn room; the two lightsabers held in each hand ready to defend her friends as they made their escape. Finn and Talyc followed behind her determined steps. The mandalorian stopped and held out a hand, calling the Mesh’la A’den to him before catching up to the others. Hoping that they would make it to the Mythosaur before the ship was destroyed.

The three Force-users ran as fast as they could around the empty halls of the Supremacy. The place was destined for destruction and Finn promised himself he would find a way to ensure Hux’s safety. Unlike the rest of the First Order, Finn was always a man of his word.

Out of the corner of his eye at an impasse of the ship, Finn spotted a stormtrooper who seemed dazed as they looked around. 

Praise the stars, there was his chance!

The Jedi in training grabbed the soldier’s armored shoulders and looked them in the visor as he uttered a command with intense concentration.

“You’ll head to the throne room and get Armitage Hux off of this ship!”

The stormtrooper cocked their head to the side like a confused Loth-wolf pup, “FN-2187?”

Finn’s eyes widened. Why the kriff did it not work?!

“It didn’t work!”

“What didn’t work?” the Stormtrooper asked the words riddled with confusion. Finn then thought about the familiar voice he heard. Feminine but not-

“AC-0820!”

“The one and only?” the trooper said, slow and confused. “Why are _you_ here? And what’s happened to Hux?”

“Oh, he’s in bad shape. Just get him and get yourself out of here! Be safe, man! And good to see ya!”

Finn could feel the trooper smile beneath his helmet, “Always and likewise, my friend.”

The Jedi gave AC-0820 a pat on the pauldron before running off after Rey and Talyc. The trooper left behind headed to the throne room so that he could gather the General and evacuate the Supremacy.


	45. We Die As We Live

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our band of heroes fly down to Crait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry the chapter is a couple days late. Work has been hectic between Covid cases on the rise, and work falling behind due to employees being in quarantine.
> 
> Due to Novemberween, and my department starting a 12 hour work schedule, I will not be posting a chapter this coming week. 
> 
> And while this chapter is a bit of filler, I promise the next chapter will be good. 
> 
> Enjoy and be safe.

R2-D2 sat in his station on the hull of the Mythosaur as he observed TIE’s and shuttles sprang from the hangar out into the black, the Mandalorian ship no longer an object of concern as the First Order fled in a fit of self preservation.

Cowards.

The droid swiveled his head around to try and spot the Mandalorian, Luke, or Rey in the empty hangar. Chewie had come back with the nice one that tried to poke and prod at the droid with any tools she could get her hands on, he was pretty sure her name was Rose. But the others were no where to be seen. They said they would be back soon.

Back soon.

R2-D2 hated those words. 

Because someone said that once and they never came back.

R2 had occasionally caught himself still waiting from time to time.

_Mee moop-moo._

“Gods, even when you’re morose, you still have a piss poor mouth!” 

R2-D2 swerved his head and saw the Mandalorian and the others. 

_Beep!_

“Seriously though! Who installed your communications chip?” the Mandalorian shouted as the three warriors hurried onto the ship. 

Three? Where was Luke?

Rey Talyc and Finn ran onto the Mythosaur. Finn darted to Chewie and Rose to check on the mechanic’s injuries, while Rey and Talyc headed to the Cockpit and launched themselves into their respective pilot seats. Immediately pressing button and flipping switches to get the damned ship started as quickly as possible. R2-D2 lowered himself down into the ship and wheeled to the pilot and co-pilot.

_Waa-woo?_

The two flyers paused in the middle of their frantic ignition sequences. Their Silence made clear the whereabouts of Luke to the astromech.

Just like Ani, Luke was not coming back.

_Bwoo._

“I’m so sorry, Artoo, it was out of our control.” Rey answered the droid with a quivering lip as she finished completing the ignition sequence with Talyc.

They had to leave this horrible place. 

**

Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo of the Raddus fleet stood alone on the damaged bridge of her ship. How long had she had this ship in her possession? How many star maps explored? How many missions completed with success? The violet haired woman pressed the microphone button on the communications panel that managed to survive the TIE fighter’s collision.

“Lieutenant, what’s the status on General Organa?”

“The General is alive and stable,” Kaydel Connix replied from her end of the comlink, “We have just landed on Crait about twelve standard minutes ago.”

A sigh escaped Holdo’s lips and relief wash over her in a warm wave. As she relaxed her shoulders Amilyn saw through the force-shield a Kom’rk-class vessel fly from the Star Dreadnought and soared down into Crait’s atmosphere. Whatever business Skywalker and his students had, they must have carried it out.

“Lieutenant, take care of yourself and General Organa,” Amilyn whispered her final order before cutting the communications feed. The Vice Admiral pressed a series of buttons on the main controls of the ship before sliding all the slide switches to the maximum settings. She wrapped her slender fingers around the hyperdrive lever and took a deep breath that would surely be one of her last.

“Long live the Resistance!” Amilyn Hold uttered to no one as she pushed the lever forward.

Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo, one of the last remaining members of the Resistance High Command; a woman whose military career spanned thirty years, launched the flagship of her fleet into the hull of the Supremacy at light speed. She closed her eyes and, as the searing white hot flames engulfed the world around her in a blinding light, Amilyn recalled the moment she met Leia years ago at the Imperial Senate. One thought echoed from her soul as her body sublimated into the cosmos.

That she did the right thing and hope would endure.

**

The shockwave of the Raddus’ collision with the Supremacy cause the Mythosaur to rattle with turbulence and everyone on the Mandalmotors fighter grabbed hold of anything to brace themselves with the exception of Rey and Talyc, whose focus was on flying the ship as far from the explosion; their only tether being the controlled they held onto in a white knuckle grip. The two pilots of the Mythosaur were silent throughout the lift off and escape from the Supremacy to Crait.

“What was that,” Rose wearily asked as she clung to the table in the galley. 

Finn braced himself against the wall he was standing next to. He reached out with the Force and in his mind’s eye he saw that a few shuttles had fled the Supremacy before it’s explosive demise, among them were his former comrade AC-0820 and Armitage. The padawan blew out a breath, relieved that his promise to Rose had not been broken. 

“I don’t know,” the defector told his best friend, “but I think the Supremacy may have just been destroyed.”

Rose closed her eyes as tight as she could so that she could prevent the tears from escaping them. She knew that Finn promised her that Armitage would escape, but whether or not that promise came to fruition the mechanic did not wish to dwell on. All she wanted to do was see Paige as soon as she and the others landed on Crait.

At the helm of the ship, Rey sat quiet and contemplating in the co-pilot’s seat. Talyc seemed to be in a similar somber mood.

“Rey.” The mandalorian bloke the silence in a soft mutter.

The scavenger turned to the Mandalorian, her eyes still swollen from the flood of tears she shed over the loss of Luke. And before Talyc could continue to say anything else, Rey quietly interrupted. “Ben, what is a Nightsister?”

Talyc sighed, too tired to correct or argue with Rey over the correct name to address him by, too overcome by the pain the events on the Supremacy left in his heart. Like a piece of calligraphy parchment, the mandalorain’s soul was being torn apart piece by piece, leaving him to wonder what strange and small fragment would remain after all his trials granted by the Force were realized.

“Nightsisters were one of the many clans of Force witches on the Planet Dathomir. Most, of not all, were wiped out during the Clone Wars in a purge due to their refusal to join the Sith. Their refusal a surprise due to the clan’s interests in the darker aspects of the Force.” 

When Talyc noticed how Rey lowered her eyes, he tried to explain further, “Such acts of Genocide were not uncommon during that Era; as when the Empire came into power, the free peoples of Mandalore were among the exterminated due to our rejection of the Empire’s dominion over us. Like us, a few Nightsisters were rumored to have survived. Their whereabouts; however, were never known.”

The mandalorian reached out and took the last Nightsister’s hand in his and looked into her eyes from behind his visor, “Until today.”

“You said ‘darker’, Ben, were they bad people.” Rey questioned, when she met Talyc’s eyes, the concern in them pained him in such a way that it was as if he was feeling her own worry, one he understood all too well inside himself.

If the darkness resided in the generations before oneself, is said darkness in their nature as well?

“No. Most Dathomiri clans all followed their founding mother’s one single rule: to never concede to evil. But to say the Nightsisters were good, well, that is a bit of a stretch.” the mandalorian realized the cold manner of his words and corrected himself. “That is to say, even though they toed the line of the dark side of the Force, by no means were they evil. They abhorred the Sith to the point of outright war, one that began many millennia ago and resulted in the Nightsisters assumed elimination within the last century.”

“Why?”

Always demanding answers, his huntress. By the Force, Talyc would have her no other way. He admired her drive to know and willingness to find the truth no matter the outcome. it was something that Ben Solo had always been apprehensive and fearful to do. Too worried about the possible disappointment or damage the truth could bring. Because it had only been disappointing to find the truth in the past; his family’s origins, his father’s trade of expertise, his mother’s priorities, and Luke’s shortcomings and flaws as a human being.

Until recently the truth only led to heartache.

“Nightsisters were able to use the Force in a way that was unconventional to both the Jedi and the Sith. It was believed that they had spells that could even resurrect the dead, something that piqued the interests of the later. The Sith’s desire for eternal life was insulting to the Nightsisters, who presumed such evil would and should always be short lived, and thus the troubles began.”

“But why? Why would Snoke ask _me_ to join him?” Rey’s voice was strained as she carried the last moments in the throne room with her. Talyc wanted the scavenger to know that she need not carry that torment alone.

Talyc focused on entering Crait’s atmosphere as he tried to find the right words to say. The reason behind Snoke’s desires died with him. “During the Clone Wars and a period between then and the Galactic Civil war, some Nightsisters were tempted, others were tricked, to help those who wield the Force in nefarious ways. When they rebelled and saw that their actions were violating their one commandment, Count Dooku and Darth Sidius purged them, and the secrets to their unique connection to the Force died along with them. Like the Mandalorians, they fought until the very last one fell.”

The desert dweller of Jakku slumped her shoulders. She was the last of her people. The secrets she did not know remained with her, and she would keep it that way, even if it was through ignorance. Rey at least had a clue to who she was. But to know that they were cast aside once they were of no use to someone else made her heart ache worse than the loneliness she had dealt with most of her life. 

Rey Surprised herself when she slowly began to smile. She now had an origin to call her own. With that knowledge came more curious questions. What did the Nightsisters look like? What was Dathomir like? Did it still exist? What was it about the Dathomirian bond with the Force that made it so different than everyone else?

“You mentioned that Nightsisters were Dathomiri. What do you know abut Dathomir?”

Dathomir had little information in the grand tomes of Galactic History. The matriarchs of the planet seemed to prefer mystery over the prodding inquisitions of the Republic. 

The reality was that Talyc did not know very much.

“It’s a planet not far from Mandalore, and I know the sun is red in that system. The most common species of rancor are native there. It’s said that the Force is very strong there, as if embedded in the planet’s very soil.”

Rey, with her hands no longer in the controls but in her lap turned to her companion; the man who fought beside her, trained with her, and pulled her from the collapsing trauma had been inflicted on her when she was held prisoner on Starkiller. “If we get through this will you take me there? I would like to see with my own eyes the place of my people. I want to know where I come from.”

“Of course,” the mandalorian agreed, “I would be honored.” He understood the desire to see the home of his ancestors. But Alderaan was gone, and such ventures dead along with it. So Talyc vowed that he would do everything in his power to help Rey step foot on Dathomir’s soil. Maybe she would find a clan of Force witches who would adopt her into their way of life, giving her the one thing she desired above all else, belonging.

By the end of their heartfelt conversation, the Mythosaur had fallen through Crait’s atmosphere and the starfighter transport was soaring through pale warm colored skies that watched over the gray salt beds on the planet’s surface.

The world below seemed so calm, there was an eerie beauty to the mineral haven. For a moment Talyc Solus and the Nightsister daughter Rey looked on and took in Crait’s quiet beauty. That was until a bright green bolt of plasma flew past them.

“We’ve got company! Hang on!” Talyc growled into the ship’s intercom to the rest of his passengers as he and Rey steered the controls in perfect synchrony to dodge the coming barrage of lasers from the two TIE silencers that tailed them.

“There! The Resistance enclave,” Rey pointed to the mountain range ahead, on closer inspection the communications towers and radar dishes could be seen jutting up from jagged peach mountain peaks.

“Rey! On the count of three, pull back as far as you can! One! Two!”

“ _Three!_ ” The two pilots shouted as they pulled back their steering controls. As they did so, Talyc ignited the thrusters of the Mythosaur’s belly. The expertly calculated maneuver caused the fighter to point its nose to the air and slowed to a stop between the Silencers as they continued their pursuit. Before the First Order pilots had a chance to realize they had flown ahead of the Mandalorian ship, Rey and Talyc had looped in the air so that they faced their opponents; and with the wrath and precision of the warriors they were, the two pilots unleashed an array of plasma blasts until the sky exploded with the starbursts of enemy ships shattered across Crait’s pale pink sky.

Talyc could not believe it! The old trick Din Djarin had Taught him years ago actually worked! The mandalorian relaxed his shoulders and exhaled while Rey threw her arms in the air in celebration, her eyes wide with disbelief!

Talyc smirked behind his buy’ce and turned to Rey, “Vi Mando’ade ratiin ganar ara at parjai. _We Mandalorians always have a way to victory._ ”

“Clearly,” the Dathomirian laughed, a birdsong Talyc hoped he would hear more in the future. 

Something beyond the veil of the Force was telling him such joy would not last. The invisible premonition arose a desperation to find a means to prevent the coming loss swelled through his chest and began to blur his logic. But the mandalorian remembered the folly of his grandfather before him. No, Ben Solo would not repeat the mistakes of Anakin Skywalker., for he learned four words that carried an immeasurable value the day he was born Talyc Solus.

This is the Way.

How their separation would take place, Talyc was unsure. All he did know was that in the worlds he survived, in the Galaxy large and expanding, everything was temporary except for the Force. So the mandalorian could only hope that She would grant him a happy reunion with the survivor of Jakku. But like the Galaxy itself, the Force was a being of uncertainty.

But so were the free peoples of Mandalore.

“We need to get to the base. More First Order forces will be coming. We have to help the Resistance be ready to defend themselves.” Talyc informed Rey, trying to hide from her the fear that crept up his spine. The scavenger nodded and the two pilot sailed the Mythosaur to the salt covered earth of Crait’s planetary surface.


	46. The Son's Forgiveness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leia has a vision. And she sees who her son could have been

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoy this chapter. I enjoyed writing it.
> 
> There is something about Skywalker family moments that I imagine would be very heartfelt but also mystical as the Force is so deeply ingrained in their nature. I wanted to capture that in this chapter along with other important issues that will be important later on.
> 
> The week of X-Mas will not have an update. Between work, the holiday and my husband's birthday right after I will be postponing that chapter for the following week.
> 
> I also want to note that the next 6 or 7 chapters were written well ahead of season 2 of The Mandalorian. So this AU will be taking some SERIOUS Canon divergence due to headcanons I had about characters after season 1 aired, that have now been debunked. All will be revealed in time, and when it does I hope it is well received.
> 
> Thank you all for reading as always, it means the world during the uncertainty of the Pandemic and life in general.

“Mamma.”

The sad cries of a young boy filled Leia’s ears as she opened her eyes to see the lush trees and flower fields by a lake she knew all too well. Feeling the warmth of bright sunshine that cast its nostalgic rays onto her skin as she found herself sitting against the trunk of a large tree. The last Princess of Alderaan grew confused, it had been decades since the last time she visited her second home on Naboo. And the last thing she remembered was standing with her fellow High Commanders on the Raddus.

That and a runaway TIE fighter careening into the bridge.

It was when she looked down at her hands when Leia realized she was not in the material world, her hands were no longer slender and wrinkled with age but smooth and supple with youth. The general touched her cheek and it dawned on her that she was years younger. As if she were in a memory long past.

No. This was a vision of the Force.

“Mamma, I wanna go home!” little Ben Solo hurried to his mother with his cheeks red and wet with tears.

“Ben, sweetheart,” Leia consoled her son when he threw himself into her arms in a voice that was young, lilting, and unfamiliar, “we’re on Naboo. We are home.”

Little Ben’s black curls swayed wildly as he shook his head. “No! I can’t!”

“He’s right. He can’t go back.” An unknown, modulated voice spoke as the bright sunshine dimmed, the yellow star above Leia eclipsed in darkness, the very winds died and the air was frightfully still.

The princess looked up to see a terrifying being, the embodiment of shadow with a masked face. The only light that escaped the creature reflected off of three chrome inlays that surrounded what Leia assumed was the mask’s visor. The rebel daughter of Padmé Amidala held her son close to her breasts.

“Who are you?” her voice carried a calm, dangerous tone and fury burned from her brown eyes. All that mattered was protecting her son and her Force-signature flared her warning to the creature of darkness. Leia Organa-Solo would not make the same mistake twice. “What do you know about my son?” 

“So like you to not recognize me. _I am your son_. Or rather, who he should have become.”

Leia’s eyes narrowed as she stared at the man born from shadow.

“I will ask you one more time, _who are you_?” the princess growled as she continued to hold her son who cried more into her chest.

“I am above the mighty Skywalkers, I am the Ruler of the Sky itself; Kylo Ren.” The being of darkness spoke. Ben’s cries died down to quiet fearful whimpers, too afraid to look at the monster who stood before him and his mother.

“I’ll have you know that this is _my_ mind. _I_ have power here!”

“You do,” Kylo Ren agreed with his mother. “Not only do you have power here. You also have fear.” The dark creature stepped towards the protective mother.

“Regret.”

Another step forward.

“Shame.”

Another.

“Self-hatred.”

And another, until Kylo Ren knelt down before his mother the way a knight of the Old Republic would before their respective senator. The last Princess of Alderaan stared into the eyeless visor of the monstrous man of shadow; the creature that called himself Kylo Ren, the man who called himself her son. But Leia then turned to her young son as the small boy pushed himself away from her chest.

“I won’t let her feel that way no more.” the small boy declared as he stood up. Little Ben Solo, who lived in Leia’s heart always, wearing clothes that looked like his father’s smuggler’s uniform; complete with white shirt, denim pants, and even the same navy blue canvas vest. All the boy desired was to be just like his father, but he was bestowed the misfortune of the Skywalkers. Cursed with the responsibilities of the Force like his mother, his uncle and his Grandfather before him. 

But it was not the clothes he wore, or the boy’s sudden bravery in the darkest hour; there was one small yet important detail that made Leia question everything. Around Ben’s neck dangled a leather strap that bore a beskar charm of a Mythosaur’s skull.

The child turned to the incarnate of shadow and told him, “My mamma made a mistake, but nice people found me and saved me from becoming you. I have power here too, and _I_ can make you go away.”

Kylo Ren stood up, his dark form drifted back, “It would seem that you do.” he said before fading away into the shadows that slowly disappeared, dissipated by the growing brightness of the sun that lit the day once more.

Little Ben Solo turned back to his mother, his smile was big and bright, reaching up to his soulful obsidian eyes. The mythosaur skull pendant shined and shimmered in the Naboo daylight as he ran to Leia so he could wrap his little arms around her neck in the most loving of hugs. With tears in her eyes, Leia returned the embrace.

“Mamma, I forgive you.”

Leia stroked her son’s unruly hair as the tears flowed free of pride and restraint, and her breath was stuck in her throat as she choked out a sob that she held in for far too long. She pulled herself away so that she could take a look at her beautiful son, born of love and victory. Leia held Ben’s face in her hands, remembering every detail of her son and committing it to memory again; his button nose, round cheeks, and his large ears that peeked out from his ebony curls. Curious fingers made their way to the beskar pendant that she rubbed in her hand.

“Sweetheart, where did you get this?”

“My family. They found me, and showed me the Way. It’s why I can’t come home. Because they’re my home too.”

Leia sighed a shaking breath, more tears rolled down her cheeks. “Kemir kovid bal muninar, kih Mando. Ijaat gar buir’e bal vod’ade. _Walk strong and tall, small Mandalorian. Honor your parents and siblings._ ”

“Par T’ad aliit Ni kemir te ara be Ijaat bal Kote. _For two families I walk the way of Honor and Glory._ ” Ben answered with a smile that Leia had never seen her son give anyone. To know her only son was finally free to feel such joy gave the last Princess of Alderaan hope for not only her child, but for herself.

“Jate’kara, ner ad. _Good stars, my son._ ” Leia Organa-Solo told her son. Little Ben smiled and nodded to his mother before he gave her one more tight embrace.

“I love you, Mamma, you’re always in my heart.” And when the boy let go, he turned away and ran into the fields of tall wildflowers until his form disappeared.

“He’s become quite the young man, Sis, he turned out just fine.”

Knowing the voice she would have been satisfied never hearing for the rest of her days, Leia chose to keep watching the empty field of flowers that Ben vanished into when she answered her estranged brother with a cold tone, “Why are you here, Luke?”

“Can’t a man say good-bye to his twin sister without a fight?” 

_Good-bye?_ The younger Skywalker twin froze. “So you didn’t survive,” Leia found the courage and serenity to turn to her brother The now grizzled old man reminded her so much of Obi-wan; he had aged terribly. Luke shook his head and he sat down beside his sister under the blossoming tree.

“The kids are alright, Leia. Your padawan has a kind and selfless heart, and your son was able to find what he believed was impossible. Rey’s journey, though difficult, will be one of enlightenment and inner strength, the kid is stronger than she knows.”

“The scavenger of Jakku has magick within her that is beyond even the two of us. That’s for sure.” Leia replied as she bent her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs.

“You knew then?”

Leia nodded before adding with a smirk, “call it women’s intuition.”

“Call it what it is, Leia. The Force.” Luke chuckled softly, provoking a giggle from his sister.

The Skywalker twins sat in a comfortable quiet, both knowing this was the last time they would be so close. Luke admired the beauty of Naboo, wondering if the planet truly was as beautiful as the dream made it.

“I’m sorry. I wished, until my last breath, there was another way.”

The rebel princess laid her chin on her knees, “ the only other way was in my hands, brother. I know that now. The fault of your burden lies with Han and me. We failed you both.”

Luke pursed his lips and asked, “Do you still carry that weight in your heart?”

I did,” Leia answered, “until a little boy with ancient eyes and hair like the voids of space taught me the importance of Cin Vhetin.” 

Luke lowered his eyes and gave his sister a slow nod of understanding before he placed his hands on the ground to push himself up. The old Jedi master looked out at the happy memory’s landscape and sighed. Leia could feel his Force-signature for the first time in ten years, and it was solemn and gray.

“Could you ever forgive me for what I’ve done, Leia?”

Leia looked up at her brother, she smiled at him with kind brown eyes, “It would seem, by the will of the Force, I already have.” The rebel princess answered her twin as she closed her eyes to bask in the light of the Force.

General Organa’s eyes slowly opened and the world around her came into view like the first rays of dawn sprouting from the horizon. The room was dim and quiet as she stared at an unfamiliar gray ceiling.

“We’re glad you made it back to us,” a soft, familiar voice cooed from the General’s right. Leia turned her head to see Maz Kanata sitting on an old metal stool covered in rust wearing a burgundy turtleneck and her usual string of wooden beads around her neck.

“I’d figure you would send me back to the place I just left,” Leia scoffed as she tried to sit up, but was frozen as her body seized with pain.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Maz scolded while shaking her head and reaching out to comfort her friend. “No one’s ever been cast out into the abyss and come back alive. And I have a feeling _that one_ ever there had something to do with it.” The ancient woman pointed a slender golden finger to the wall left of Leia’s bed. The resistance General turned her head with caution to avoid the ache that her previous rash movements provoked, so that she could take a glimpse of what Maz was pointing to.

There they were; Talyc and Rey, both slumbering on the stone floor in the small med bay beside each other. Resting their exhausted heads on their arms like makeshift pillows. What truly piqued Leia’s curiosity; however, was how their free arms had reached out for the other. Just close enough that the tips of their fingers united them in sleep. Next to the Mandalorian and scavenger were Poe and Finn, leaning their backs against the wall in the same state at Rey and Talyc. Poe, the sweet fool, had a small smile on his face as he laid his head on Finn’s shoulder, while the later happened to be wearing the Pilot’s favorite jacket.

“Maz, you’ll have to enlighten an old woman but _which_ one is _that_ one?”

The alien woman stepped to a small table as rusty as the stool she stood up from. On the table was a pestle and mortar and with it a copper tea pot that was placed beside a crudely formed ceramic cup.

“The boy ,” Maz answered as she grabbed the pestle and mortar to grind up the unknown herbs within into a fine powder. The old woman never turned around to look at Leia as she spoke, but the General already knew that there was only one man that the Pirate Queen ever recently referred to as ‘boy’. Leia stared at the slumbering Mandalorian on the floor. One by one the pieces of the puzzle fell into place; the vision of her son, the voice that screamed out her name before the Raddus’ bridge burst into flames, even the simple willingness to open up and have a deep conversation with the bounty hunter whom the General believed was a stranger. A stranger who felt so _familiar_.

“What do you know about the Mandalorian?”

“I know things that are only meant for him to tell you. It is not my place to utter his secrets.” Maz told Leia while she quickly sifted the powdered herbs into the cup, then poured the hot water from the copper kettle right after. “But I will tell you this. Talyc Solus is a man torn in two. He yearns to return to the home he once had; but feels he cannot, because the home he found has done so much to better him in this cruel existence. The fool has yet to realize that _both_ of his lives make him who he is.”

Maz pushed the cup in the General’s hands, the heat of the tea seeping through the glazed stoneware spread through Leia’s fingers and up her wrists, “Drink.” The Pirate Queen ordered the head High Commander of the Resistance.

And Leia obeyed, she brought the brew to her lips and drank the whole contents of the cup in a few gulps. Immediately her nose wrinkled and her lips warped into a grimace as she handed the empty cup back to Maz.

“Maz, have you ever Kissed a Hutt?” Leia asked her old friend as she placed her fingertips to her lips. 

“Gods no! Why do you ask?”

“I have,” the Princess said as she pointed to the cup in the Queen’s hand, “and that was worse!”

Maz Kanata was about to quip something witty in reply to Leia’s comment about the tea, but was interrupted by a small voice; hoarse no doubt from the stress of the last few hours.

“General Organa, may I have a word please?”

Leia and the ancient woman turned their heads to the doorway to see Rose Tico, no longer in her dress but in her regulation engineer’s uniform leaning an arm against the door’s open frame. Her make-up had been washed away by a warm shower and endless tears. Her distress was emanating from her Force-signature so strong even Maz was able to feel it through her own subtle connection. Leia waved the mechanic into the room, sitting up with much less pain that when she first tried. That disgusting potion her friend concocted seemed to do the trick.

Rose walked in and sat down on the foot of the bed. Maz placed her hand on the General’s shoulder and told her, “I’ll come back later.” before she walked away from the bed and out of the small med bay room. Before leaving she gave Poe Dameron a gentle kick with her boot that peeked out from her long black skirt. The Pilot jolted awake and looked up at Maz, then the bed where Leia and Rose were. He reached over to Finn and gave him a gentle shake. Finn woke up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he scanned the med bay for anything out of place until his eyes stopped where Poe was staring. The two men sat and observed in silence while Rose made a confession to General Organa in a whisper.

“This is all my fault. If I hadn’t-”

“No, Rose. No one is at fault for this.” Leia interrupted in a consoling whisper of her own. 

“How can you say that? We went out on a mission that we planned behind the Resistance’s back. We got caught and threw everyone into this mess. All because...” Rose buried her face in her hands and she shook her head in the hopes that the thoughts within would fly away from her, “it’s my fault she’s-” Rose’s words ended with uncontrollable sobs. Leia pulled the young mechanic into her arms and allowed the girl to mourn the loss of her sister, knowing the pain all too well as the same wound was fresh on her soul.

“My brother Luke is dead.” Leia provided her own confession, to which Rose paused and stared into the eyes of the woman who took her in like a surrogate mother. “I know the pain you are going through, Rose, as he was all the family I had at one time. We will mourn our loss together and hold each other up. We will walk into a new dawn. Together.”

The younger siblings held each other and Leia joined Rose and allowed the tears to fall and her heart to burst with emotion.

_Boom!_

The world shook from the shockwave of a distant explosion. Rey awoke with a start, ready to fight; while Talyc sat up and seemed to gather his surroundings. Steps were heard speeding to the room until Lieutenant Connix entered, bracing herself by clinging to the door frame.

“They’re here, General! And it seems like they’ve brought out the heavy artillery!” Kaydel puffed out between heaving breathes due to her running to announce the dilemma at hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kylo Ren enters the story. I wanted the character included due to the idea that Ben becoming Talyc Solus is a parallel to Ben's fall in Canon. I created this story with the intent of creating a "what if..." scenario and how much the story changes due to one action. 
> 
> One of those changes being that Ben, while he teeters on the fringes of the Dark Side in order to protect himself and those her cares about, manages to find the strength to resist the manipulation of Snoke. Whether it be by seeing how he is not alone in the universe, or he is accepted by some for simply being himself. No matter how he feels about himself personally, Din and Vod'ika care about him unconditionally, Rey truly loves him, and he has made friends in the Resistance whether he believes it or not.


	47. The Battle of Crait

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Finn fight beside Talyc in the fight for everyone's lives. The mandalorian makes a difficult decision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update. Life was being...life. All is well, things have just been busy with the holiday season.
> 
> I would like to thank and acknowledge Izzerslololol, TenTonParasol, thesummerstorms, and variative for their collaborative work on Ao3 callled Mando'a : A Supplementary Dictionary 
> 
> The phrase "all teeth, all bite" in this chapter would not have been available or conceived without the knowledge they shared in the work above.
> 
> Enjoy

“What kind of artillery?” Talyc stood up from the stone floor and inquired the Lieutenant of the severity of the situation the Resistance was now in. 

“AT-AT’s, AT-ST’s, your typical flyers, speeders, and apparently a battering cannon. Our intel from Rose’s former contact had mentioned a few months ago the production of such a weapon using old Imperial technology, _Deathstar_ technology. That thing will break through our only line of defense like a not knife through blue butter.” Kaydel informed the audience in the med bay. 

While everyone processed how the eminent danger they were in grew as each second passed, the mandalorian thought through as many possible options the Resistance had for survival that could come to mind. Talyc had to be honest with himself that the chances of the Resistance defending the base and making it out of the situation were slim. Quite possibly none. He stopped and stared at his mother as she slowly pushed herself off of her bed, much to the frustration of Maz and the concerns of Rose and Lieutenant Connix; who quickly joined the other two women in assisting Leia, once again providing the role of General of her cause. Once again putting on her stoic, resolute mask.

Talyc had already lost his father and Luke during their battles against the First Order, and he had nearly lost Leia on the Raddus to the void of space. His own sanity at the hands of Snoke’s twisted use of the Force was almost lost, and with it his current state of balance with the Force. If he could call his connection to the greater power such. 

And Rey.

The mandalorian’s body trembled upon recalling the memory of the scavenger’s confession, but elation became dread when he remembered her execution of the Supreme Leader. Actions that were identical to his grandfather’s fall from grace and embracing the Dark Side. A hole grew in Talyc’s stomach as the thought of his own actions during the battle among the stars hours before tore its claws into his soul, he had cast away dozens of soldiers and First Order officers into the back without a moment’s hesitation, he struck down more by bathing his beskad in blood as he searched for Snoke. The mandalorian had used the force to destroy, just like his grandfather before him. Talyc was also tip-toing the tightrope that was the Force’s duality just as the woman he loved was.

The mandalorian feared that the battle to come could result in the ultimate demise of the Resistance and the downfall of the woman he loved as well as himself.

Unless...

Talyc Solus stood up and without a word sauntered out the room. He knew again what he had to do, and he was sure he had the strength to do it. The Force swirled around him so strong with each step that even Rose, Poe and Kaydel were unnerved by the sudden change in the mandalorian’s presence as he exited the med bay room. Leia and Maz’s eyes grew dark with worry, the General remembering the vision she had before she woke from her unconsciousness and began to fear the possibility of losing her son again, only this time forever. 

Nevertheless everyone allowed the warrior to leave the room.

Everyone with the exception of Rey. Who jumped up to her feet and followed after the Mandalorian. Finn, after looking up at the ceiling and shaking his head, begrudgingly got up and left a few seconds later. Poe’s eyes met the defector’s, pleading that he stay and help the Resistance figure out what to do without words. Finn stopped at the doorway, he gave Poe a small smile. One he hoped the pilot would read as confident and comforting. The Force had a plan, Finn could feel it in his soul, and the former stormtrooper had to oblige the Force’s will or the Resistance would surely be lost. So to Rey and Talyc the Jedi apprentice ran.

As Talyc walked through the small base, the resistance fighters who were still able to combat quickly avoided the mandalorian’s path; all of them had the same emotion vibrating through their Force-signatures like ringlets of waves created by steady raindrops on a pond’s surface.

Fear.

And they had every right to be afraid, the mandalorian was gathering power from the darkest parts of his heart. If he could harness the Dark powers of the Force to save everyone, then such personal heresy would be worth everyone’s salvation. Ben Solo was a young man, angry and terrified of his potential evils, whose fear and fury brought on his demise. But Talyc Sols was a man whom had come to terms with his anger by finding freedom and companionship in Din and Vod’ika, and as a Mandalorian he would protect his families, his new friends, and his cyar’ika, by any means available to him. Even if it meant confronting and creating a pact with the monster that paced within. The creature born of the Force that his mother and Luke feared, the very one Snoke wanted to poach for his perverse quest for control in the Galaxy.

The beast will finally rear its hideous head, but only on the terms of the lost prince turned Mandalorian warrior.

An’edee, an’edeemir! _All teeth; all bite!_ as the old saying goes.

Talyc stopped before the massive armored door that was the only entrance and exit the mountain base had. The only obstacle that stood between him and saving everyone.

“Open the door,” the mandalorian demanded in a soft, authoritative tone to anyone within earshot of his command. 

“But mr. Solus-”

The mandalorian turned around, and though his face was covered by his buy’ce, the Resistance officer who tried to speak up was frozen in place and lost the will to argue, terrified by the man who said nothing and simply stared at the opposition to his request. 

“Talyc!”

Rey ran to the armored warrior, the defector Finn hurried not far behind her. Their breaths were panting and heavy from running throughout the base in pursuit of the Mandalorian. Talyc refused to turn around and face them, afraid he would lose his nerve if he saw his friends.

“We’re going with you!” Rey told Talyc, Finn nodded to assure his position on the matter. 

“Absolutly not!” The mandalorian growled. This would be his fight, he was risking his light to prevent them from turning away from the noble side of the Force and falling themselves.

Finn stepped forward, his face stern and resolute, “You can’t do this alone!” He pointed out to Talyc.

“I can and I will!” The mandalorian declared with his back turned to Rey and Finn

“Gar cuyir hut’uun! _You are a coward!_ ” Rey shouted in Mando’a with bared teeth in the hope she was speaking a language her thick-headed fool of a friend would understand.

“The kark did you just call me?” the mandalorain roared so loud that nearby Resistance fighters flinched and backed away from the trio of Force-users.

“You heard me! To go out there and die for nothing by yourself, pretending to be some kind of hero, while we can win this battle together! Duumir ni at akaanir juaan gar, cyare! _Allow me to fight beside you, beloved!_ ” The scavenger reached out for Talyc’s armored hand and she turned him around so that the mandalorian could see every Resistance officer, fighter, technician, and behind all of them stood Maz, Rose, Lieutenant Connix, and last holding herself up with an old broom was his mother. 

The eyes of the Resistance stared at Talyc, and when he could not take their looks of concern any longer, he turned to Rey. Her eyes were misty with tears and her thoughts were only of him when she added, “We have to, Talyc, for them.” 

The mandalorian locked eyes with his mother, who stood tall as her small frame allowed despite her near death experience as she braced herself with the broom handle.

Yet again, Rey was right. Maybe she could help him, Finn too. Talyc sighed his resignation, “Fine, but if I tell you to run, do so. Because I’m no one’s hope, but you two,” the mandalorian pointed to the scavenger and the defector before he gestured to the Resistance behind him, “you’re theirs.”

The Resistance officers who stood by and listened to the Mandalorian seemed moved enough to initiate opening the front gate. The creaking and crunching of old salt rusted gears and duristeel cords grinding against pullies filled the air throughout the base as the door in the mountain slowly rose up from the red salted earth. The higher the door was hoisted up, the more the ominous horizon was seen. There were too many terrain walkers and speeders to count from the distance along with multiple TIE starfighters dotting the sky, but in the center of the horizon was a massive device, no doubt the battering cannon that Lieutenant Connix had informed everyone about. From the distance Rey could only describe it as a giant mechanical eye.

The base was rendered silent with fear, Talyc steeled his nerves and tried to loosen the knot in his stomach; Rey and Finn furrowed their brows, determined to protect the base at all costs. 

“You still want to do this by yourself?” Rey asked the Mandalorian, her amber eyes shined with the drive to win and they seemed to glow in the dull light of Crait’s sun.

“You still want to help?” Talyc goaded back with an indignant tone in his voice. Coaxing a grin to grow on Rey’s lips.

“So, how do we do this and live?” Finn chimed in as he steadied his breathing, channeling the Force around him.

“Remember General Solo’s burial?”

Finn and Rey nodded at the Mandalorian as the three stepped outside the base. The dry, salty winds of Crait whistled across the salt flats between the base and the First Order’s armada that seemed to stand on the edge of the world. It was three wielders of the Force against an entire army made of technological beasts of destruction. Beasts accompanied by birds of death flying with steel wings spread out in the pink skies, casting apocalyptic silhouettes in the quiet day’s sunlight; hovering above like prophets of tyranny.

Rey and Finn’s clothes and hair wavered and rustled slightly from the dull air that moaned past them, but Talyc stood stone still as a monument of his found people. He held his ground; standing tall, proud, and unwavering. Rey had never felt such pride before in her life, even now she knew the feelings she felt were his. The scavenger wondered if Talyc could feel the growing worry that bloomed in her heart, the fear that the battle they were about to enter may also be their last moments together.

The mere idea of the possible separation physically pained Rey of Jakku, the ache in her heart felt as if she were being cleaved in two.

“Like General Solo’s funeral, we will open the ground, doing so will disable the terrain walkers. After that we use any means at our disposal to take out the aerial vessels and all speeders that we can. The battering cannon is last.” Talyc relayed the plan to his party, one be believed was a logical and clear path to victory, without looking back at them. He turned his head to the side to look back at them after a short moment. “I suggest you draw a weapon now.” he suggested to Rey and Finn as he drew out his beskad from its hidden sheath in his thigh plate.

Rey unclipped the legacy lightsaber from her belt as well as the corrupted lightsaber she obtained from Snoke. But she paused when all that Finn drew was a blaster pistol, and she had an idea. 

The scavenger clipped the Solo lightsaber back onto her belt and unclipped Luke’s lightsaber. She stepped over to Finn and held out the dark grey metal hilt to her friend who darted his eyes from the hilt to Rey with a curious stare.

“Here,” Rey told Finn as she pushed her hand out closer, “another soul guides me on my path in the Force. The heart within this blade will lead you well on yours.”

Finn’s eyes landed on the hilt in Rey’s hand, he looked into his friend’s amber eyes that were full of love, assuring him that he was more than worthy of the Jedi sword. The scavenger smiled at the defector turned Jedi apprentice, her dimples made her seem pure and revealed how young she was in heart and in body when she did so.

“But Luke was your teacher, you’re a Jedi too.”

Rey’s smile faltered and she shook her head, “No, my path is not along the ways of the Jedi. That is all I know.” she turned back to look at Talyc, his sword of Mandalorian iron in his hand while the copper lightsaber hilt remained clipped to his belt as he watched the armada on the horizon. Her loose locks of hair whipped in the wind, and stray strands drifted from her single bun that confined the rest. As if Talyc felt Rey’s eyes on him, he turned his head and looked over his shoulder at her.

“Are you ready? Because we’re out of time.”

Finn and Rey ran to Talyc and stood at each side of him, the three held their swords in their main hands as they lifted their free hands in the air before them. The Force lent them her stregnth and the three focused on the ground beneath the armada opening up and swallowing the great fleet whole like a sarlacc in a sea of red soil and salt. The surface of Crait began to rumble under the three Force-users’ feet and with a loud primal roar the trio put all their efforts into the task of collapsing the planet’s crust beneath the fleet. In the distance AT-AT’s and AT-ST’s began to wobble and falter as the ground began to rupture under their mechanical feet.

Their efforts; however, were not enough as a wave of speeders and air crafts came rushing to the base. Talyc, Finn and Rey charged towards the incoming land and air fighters. The Force augmented their sprints to inhuman speeds. Rey unclipped Ben’s lightsaber from her belt as she, along with Finn whose green blade lit up from the dark hilt, ignited her blades of blue and red. The two leapt into the air to slice into incoming TIE fighters while Talyc slid down into the salt covered earth, scattering a flare of red soil and sand above him as he sliced through the first speeder’s hull with his beskad; its duristeel skin no match for Mandalorian iron. 

Rey slashed her lightsaber across the wing of a TIE fighter before the starfighter twirled down, she then struck a speeder with the red blade in her left hand as she landed on the ground with hard but stable footing, salt and red sand scattered around her as she charged towards her next target. Talyc caught a glimpse of the sight and marveled at the absolute beauty he witnessed in that moment. How the aura of red dirt, a red that mimicked Dathomir’s red sun, flew about the scavenger as she was being baptized by combat. If Snoke was speaking truth when he revealed the secret of her lineage; Rey of Jakku was not only a Nightsister by blood, but her raging spirit as well. 

When Finn lunged into the air, he made his landing in a graceful kneel on the front of one of many speeders that hovered about. His short dreadlocks shook in the fast moving air around him and with a smirk he said to the shocked stormtrooper, “Hey! I could use a lift!”

“Whah!?”

The Jedi apprentice swept the trooper off the speeder ensuring the soldier’s landing was a safe one. Then with a wild grace, Finn swung himself onto the speeder’s seat, soaring through the salt fields as he carved the green Jedi blade of light through speeders. Making sure to only disable the crafts without explosive damage; if he could so, the apprentice would strive to ensure the safety of every storm trooper he fought through restraint and compassion. 

Finn’s heart was still broken with guilt over taking Phasma’s life. And he promised himself under the eyes of the Force he would never make the same mistake a second time.

Two speeders were coming the defector’s way. Finn thought of his options, but the only conclusion that would grant him success was if he used both his blaster and his lightsaber. To do so would require the use of both his hands. But there was no more time to think the plan through, the speeders sped ever nearer. So Finn took a quick breath as he channeled the force to his hands that held the handle bars, with faith in himself to extend his control of the Force onto the speeder he let go and grabbed his blaster from his belt and with a swing and a single shot, both opposing speeders were disabled and they tumbled away in a haze of sparks and black smoke.

Finn blinked his ebony eyes in awe, he turned around and saw two storm troopers stumbling out from the crashed speeders, then looked down at the handle bars that were still stable and held steady by an invisible essence, only fluctuating in movement when he mentally commanded them to do so. The Jedi apprentice began to laugh and smiled brighter than he ever had in his life. In a burst of triumph Finn threw his arms in the air and while flying the speeder with the Force he cackled with joy in the midst of the fight!

“Woo!”

The trio of Force-using warriors fought valiantly until victory was in their sights. But a ship entered the atmosphere and swirled the wispy clouds above as it drew near. It was black with a long body, a cockpit that seemed more like the head of a winged beast than the front of a starship. Its wings outstretched and unmoving as it landed between Rey, Finn and Talyc; warriors who united and stood beside each other for the battle’s finale, and the battering cannon on the horizon. The three could instantly feel the pressure of dark energy emanating from the ship. One signature was unmistakably familiar to the Mandalorian’s senses, the hairs on the back of his neck rose and his skin prickled with fear.

“Please tell me I’m not the only one absolutely _terrified_ right now!” Finn huffed to his comrades.

Rey and Talyc shook their heads, letting the Jedi in training know that he was indeed not the only one scared out of his wits. The scavenger tried to remain calm as the searing, painful memories of Ren’s interrogation flooded her skull. There were more than one- four to be exact- but none of them were as powerful as the man who brutalized her psyche and abused her mind. Their intents; however, were all menacing and full of malice.

Talyc, on the other hand, was calm. Despite his fear he seemed enlightened. For the first time the Mandalorian knew what he had to do. To salvage the light of the Force and save the ones he loved, he would have to confront his darkness, tame it, and use it to vanquish the evil that had come to decimate everything. For if he failed, if Finn or Rey were captured by the four monsters and turned to the Dark Side, all hope would be lost. 

But he, Talyc would die fighting, the Knights of Ren will never have him. Because the beast within Ben Solo, who had been trapped and slumbering behind a beskar cage, will come out, hungry for blood after a lifetime of starvation. The monster inside will finally be granted permission to feed and ravage, Talyc knew in order to do this he would risk damnation by acknowledging his past as a part of his present self, and by embracing the darkness he had suppressed his whole life. But if forsaking his soul meant saving Rey, as well as saving his mother and her cause, his loss would be worth their salvation. Whether it be his light, or his life.

“You both need to go. Head back to base. Now!”

Rey and Finn hesitated, their refusal to run instantly irritated the Mandalorian.

“This isn’t about glory or honor!” Talyc shouted at the two warriors who fought beside him. “You both stay here and you’ll be killed, or worse, you’ll end up one of them!” he pointed to the ship before the trio and then with a furious sweep of his arm he yelled, “Now go!”

Finn searched the Mandalorian’s feelings, he felt resolve, and fear. But the defector also felt something that was the most concerning of all.

Submission.

The apprentice realized then that Talyc was willing to perish to save them, there was no pride or nobility in his decision to pay the ultimate sacrifice, only duty.

With a sigh Finn conceded, “you don’t have to tell me twice.” and he pulled out his com and spoke into it. 

“Open the door, Rey and I are coming back.”

The creaking hum of the door to the base opening howled through the air, Finn grabbed Rey by the hand and pulled her with him, “C’mon, we have to go.” To which the scavenger yanked her hand out of his grip.

“I’m not going anywhere,” her voice was soft, barely a whisper, but the fury in her tone was deadly as she stomped over to Talyc.

“Rey, what’re you doing?” Finn called out to his friend. 

The survivor of Jakku ran away from Finn and stood before Talyc, she raised her head up to stare up at him as he gazed down at her.

“I’m not leaving you.” She declared to the Mandalorian.

Rey felt Talyc’s rage as if it were her own, the red aura tainting his blue light again the way it had on the Mythosaur as they searched for Luke. Like blood in clean water.

“Why are you so stubborn!?” he shouted in a loud roar that rattled the ground they stood on.

“Why are you so foolish!?” Rey screamed back with as much anger, baring her teeth like a feral loth-cat.

Talyc laughed maniacally, the situation was weighing too much on him as it was, and Rey was complicating what should have been an easy task.

“Don’t be stupid! You need to live, Rey!” The mandalorain bunched his hands into tight fists that trembled with his frustration. “Your destiny is bigger than all of this!” he spread his arms wide and gestured to the world around him.

“My destiny has you standing beside me! You know this!”

“Oya’ika, gev _stop_!” Talyc howled into the salt fields.

“Rey, the doors are open lets-”

Finn was cut off as he was thrust back to the base by Rey, she did not lift a hand or even look at her friend as she pushed him away with the Force. Not long ago, Talyc had seen Rey’s potential on Starkiller; she was strong and more powerful than she knew. But on Crait, with burning eyes of amber, Rey of Jakku; the daughter of an unknown Nightsister and vagabond Jedi, was fully aware of the strength within her.

Strong or weak, Ben Solo inside is beskar shell could not take it anymore. The strife of war, his beloved’s hardheadedness, his longing for a home that was both so close yet light years away.

The mandalorian reached up and ripped off his buy’ce and showed Rey his dishonor. His face dripping with sweat, his cheeks a deep red from battle, his long black hair sticking to his temples, forehead, and neck. His thick damp locks flailed as he threw his buy’ce at his feet onto the salt covered earth.

“Is this what you wanted!?” Ben cried out as he pounded at his breastplate, “Because this creature that stands before you is damned with a curse! I’m no good, Rey! Because of my grandmother’s ideals, my grandfather’s sins, my father’s greed, my mother’s ambition, and my uncle’s hubris; I am a monster they created!” 

Tears rolled down from his obsidian eyes and his voice cracked with grief when he begged the woman he loved more than anything else, “Let this monster save you! Let me do something good for once! _Please_!”

Rey was speechless, the shock of seeing Ben’s face without the aid of their unique bond was baffling. She felt like the events that had taken place over the past hours were figments of a horrible nightmare and the scavenger would wake up in her hut on Ahch-To. She would see Luke in his usual grouchy morning mood but alive and well, and Talyc would be stoic and friendly as always. Rey bit the inside of her cheek, and the pain reminded her that she was indeed walking the waking life and the nightmare was real, the realization provoked tears to rush from her eyes and fall down her face.

Ben’s lips trembled as he shook his head feeling her through unspoken through their connection, “No, this isn’t your fault, Cyar’ika. You shouldn’t have a place in this story, you shouldn’t be burdened with the mess my family has made.” the lost prince’s face contorted in pain when he told Rey, “I’m sorry.”

The scavenger could feel the mandalorian’s heart break as he spoke, she ultimately understood her vision and why Crait caused her so much pain. Rey too was falling apart and she questioned why the Force would allow such a tragedy to happen? Why would they allow such a kind person endure so much that he felt inhuman? Why did he allow her parents who loved her to die and leave her to suffer alone? 

“Ben, I won’t- _I can’t_ abandon you! You may feel undeserving, , unloved, and alone. _I feel it too_! That’s why I won’t leave you. I can’t lose you, Ben, not like this.”

Ben clenched his jaw, contemplating what his next words would be. 

They never came.

Instead the lost Prince of Alderaan, heir apparent to the Chosen One of the Force, brought his armored hands to Rey’s hair. In an act he hoped would show her how much be loved her, how much he wanted her, Ben Solo untied the last bun and let her hair down. The same way it was when Rey showed the mandalorian her trust in him on Ahch-To under twinkling stars and a night sky. Ben ran his fingers through her hair, doing so was the most loving and intimate gesture he could think of, and Rey’s lip trembled, letting him know the token was understood and cherished.

“Ni copad gar at oyacyir, Oya’ika. Ner Nau cuyir oyayc Tio’r gar. Bic cuyir gar. _I want you to live, huntress. My light is alive within you. It is you._ ”

The hatch of the buzzard-like warship began to draw up, and the gangplank would drop down soon after. It was time, the Knights of Ren were coming out to avenge their comrades who were lost on Starkiller base. 

It was time for unwanted farewells.

Ben grabbed Rey’s cheeks in his hands and pulled her close, their lips crashed into each other. It was short and violent as the collisions of asteroids in the Azure System. When he pulled away Ben spoke onto the scavenger’s lips, “If I get see you again, I will give all of myself to you. I promise.”

Before Rey of Jakku could nod her acceptance of his gift, before she could mourn her impending loss her body was pushed back. As the image of Ben Solo with his black hair blowing in the winds grew smaller. The pariah of the Force echoed his last words through their bond in the tone of a loving whisper.

_Kar’taylir ibac Ni kar’tayl gar darasuum._

_Know that I love you._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh my heart, it hurt to write this. The next chapter will be full of highly graphic violence. Be forewarned, be prepared and mind the archive warning, it's not going to be pretty. 
> 
> Next chapter will be The Black Beast Emerges or as I like to call it: Ben Solo and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day


	48. The Bloody One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben Solo unleashes his darkest potential. 
> 
> It's gonna be a blood bath friends, be forewarned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm alive! Apologies for the gap between the update. Between the holiday, the US having an insurrection at the Capitol, and a co worker passing last week, I had a tough time sitting down to type, proofread, and edit this chapter. It has taken me almost three weeks to get this where I felt it was ready to post. 
> 
> I hope it was worth the wait. 
> 
> Enjoy Ben Solo going ham on some baddies.

_The night buzzard. Twelve standard hours ago._

The flag ship of the Knight’s of Ren soared through the black. Alone in his quarters, Lord Ren stood over an organized steel desk. Blue eyes stared down at a small locked chest that was no larger than an ordinary trinket box as it sat between scarred hands. There were no markings to indicate the containers origins, but the Shadow writhed within, bellowing to be released.

For nine years Ren had kept the box and its contents inside with him at all times, given to him by Snoke after the Knights of Ren had completed a mission for the Supreme Leader as trial to prove their usefulness to the First Order and the Shadow.

 _Seek out the Jedi Temple ruins on Yavin IV, and bring Ben Solo’s lightsaber to me. Your reward will help you obtain power beyond your darkest dreams._

Ren and his knights completed the task, their reward was the chest and all the credits and resources they ever needed to journey on their quest for power; so long as they swore their loyalty and assisted the First Order when called upon. The only rule was that the black chest could only be unlocked and opened after the Supreme Leader’s death. 

And through the Force not long ago, Snoke’s cowardly whimpers sung out from the supremacy light-years away as the old bastard perished.

How typical.

Ren ran the palm of his hand across the top of the chest, channeling the Darkness around him. As he did so, red Sith glyphs appeared and began to glow on the ebony surface of the box. The symbols told Ren:

_A path of unfamiliar dead stars will lead you home._

There was a soft click, the lock granting the Darksider permission to reveal the contents of the small evil box. Ren, with a delicate nature that seemed unfamiliar to hands that had only ravaged and destroyed, lifted the lid of the chest and flipped it back. Inside was an ancient holocron of Sith origins, black and pyramidal in shape. Along the sides of the holocron were numerous lines and circles etched into dark green tektite glass. The leader of the Knights of Ren picked up the precious bauble and brought it closer so that he could inspect it further. After a moment of speculation the strange patterns revealed themselves to be star maps.

Ren realized that this was no ordinary holocron that he possessed, this was an interstellar compass!

“Lord Ren,” a modulated voice spoke from behind the man with silver hair. “We’ve just received news from the First Order-”

“I already know, Vicrul.” Ren answered his underling and companion. “Contact the First Order and head to wherever the Resistance is hiding. As usual, bring any Force-users you encounter. _Alive_.”

There was an instant understanding of the Master’s instructions. The dimly lit room was quiet for a moment too long before Vicrul broke it with a question.

“And you, Lord?”

Ren held the holocron in his hands. Not bothering to look at his brother in the Force as he answered him. “I have another matter that needs my attention. I trust the four of you to carry out my orders without error. You have yet to fail me, my friend.”

With a shallow bow of his head, Vicrul turned and left Ren’s quarters. Ren clutched the holocron tight in his marred hand and he too left his rooms to board his personal shuttle and begin his quest.

‘Where, great Shadow, do you plan to lead me?’

**

 _Crait. Present time._

Ben Solo stood alone on salted red earth as he waited for the Knights of Ren to emerge from their black ship. He heard the only door to the Resistance enclave slam shut with a rumble in the distance and the mandalorian closed his eyes, relieved that Rey and the others were finally safe. 

From the First Order, and from him. 

His hair whipped and wavered in the wind as salt particles pelted his face like sand in a desert storm. Stinging his delicate skin and eyes without the protection of his buy’ce that lay beside his feet. Ben glanced down at it, appraising it’s potential use for the fight that was coming.

The sensations on his skin were almost unfamiliar as he had not felt the wind through his hair and the elements kissing his skin since the day he died ten years ago.

Damnation was no doubt uncomfortable in more ways than one.

Ben held his beskad tight in his hand as he unclipped his mother’s lightsaber from his belt and held the Jedi weapon with the other. He ignored the pain of his tender skin’s exposure and channeled it into his rage. Ben connected with a part of himself that was pushed away in a beskar cage for the last decade and with eyes black as the void he watched his opponents as they stepped down the gangplank in a dark procession and came forward to face the mandalorian.

The four warriors in black armor sauntered to the unmasked Mandalorian , circling him in case he would try to run instead of fight.

The nerve of the fools who dare to think the brother of Din Djarin, the son of Leia Organa, the grandson of Padme Amidala would choose self-preservation over fighting for what is right!

Ben slid his right foot across the salted ground, exposing the blood red dirt beneath and ignited his mother’s blade. He smacked his beskad against his beskar breastplate, the twang of iron striking iron sang into the empty air a dissonant war cry as the Knights of Ren drew their weapons. Such deadly sounds were harmonic in the empty air around them.

“You’ve grown brave, Mandalorian.” the modulated voice rumbled from the masked creature with grid lined patterns for a face. “But you fear yourself. Not to worry, I will carve what you fear apart. Piece, by beautiful, fair-skinned piece.”

“Do you know why?”

The grid faced knight cocked his head in a curious and menacing manner, waiting with intrigue to hear more.

“My grandfather’s tainted blood runs in my veins. I am a descendant of fear himself. That’s why I’m afraid.” 

The Knights of Ren tilted their heads in curiosity and Ben Solo shifted his eyes between them. His lip curled into a snarling smirk, one his father would have been proud of, as the son of a scoundrel lifted the swords in his hands and shrugged his shoulders. Displaying a defiant gesture of confidence against the most sinister wielders of Darkness in the known Galaxy.

If the fools did not understand now, they never will; Ben would not give them the chance.

The mandalorian charged the first knight, one with a blunt staff and a mask that was made up of mangled steel. The two parried blows with their weapons before Ben swung his mother’s lightsaber through the knight’s heart and pulling the blade up through the shoulder, cleaving a gaping cauterized wound in his wake as the corpse fell limp into the dirt.

The rabid bastard child of the Force held a hand out and pulled another knight to him with unseen arms. This one swung his short sword that resemble a meat cleaver in a mad flurry as he tried to resist the Mandalorian’s focused pull of his body. Ben with little effort blocked the knights wild blows with his weapons before he disarmed the knight with his beskad.

“What are you!?” the knight bellowed in fear through his vocoder before Ben threw the warrior up above him with the Force, holding him there to flail about. He stared at the fear-mongering Knight that stole Rey from her home of Jakku with black unfeeling eyes of rage as he rose his beskar wielding hand up above his head, impaling the knight with his iron sword. And with a slash across the unfortunate soul’s belly, a downpour of blood and entrails rained down on the mandalorian; coating him from head to armored toe with the blood of his enemy. The slosh of blood and guts splashing onto the salt covered earth was complimented by the dying modulated moans of the darksider knight. It was a symphony Ben hoped the others would remember until their impending dying moments.

Covered in red, Ben’s black eyes burned with the urge to destroy everything and everyone around him. The mandalorian had truly become his adopted namesake.

He was Talyc Solus, dar’manda of the free people’s of Mandalore. 

The Bloody One.

Lowering his blade from above his head, Ben solo contemplated over the two souls that lived within his heart. His final conclusion was that both were damned beyond redemption.

The bloody warrior threw the dead knight down onto the salt covered ground as if casting aside a broken toy. With an inhuman growl and teeth bared, Ben rushed to the next knight in his sights. The one with a mask that resembled a skull, who wield a poleaxe as his weapon of choice. Much to the mandalorian’s fury, the knight blocked the blows of Ben’s rage with the lightsaber resistant axe blade that managed to also hold up against the mandalorian’s beskad. Despite his displeasure of not being able to break through the knight’s defenses, Ben reveled in how he parried the dark warrior’s barrage of strikes blow after blow with little effort. That was until the Knight of Ren managed to stumble in mid swing, his axe connecting with Ben’s lightsaber in such a way that the hilt was forced from his hand and fell to the ground. 

Though exhaustion was consuming the dark warrior, the masked fiend still had plenty of fight left in his spirit. So Ben called his buy’ce to his hand and with all his might between blocking the axe he struck the knight with the Mandalorian helmet. With a loud clunk and a wave of vibration that scattered up his arm, the strike proved to be sufficient to the damned warrior as the knight of Ren staggered back and lowered his weapon in a daze. So Ben gave another Keldabe kiss to his opponent with his buy’ce, and another, and another. If the bastard somehow managed to survive, which Ben knew already the knight would not, the masked warrior would surely never forget the iron kiss of the Free Peoples of Mandalore.

Between the dizzying concussion and the fatigue of battle, Ben’s opponent had become sluggish and weak. The mandalorian’s white teeth peeked through blood soaked lips; ivory cutting through vermillion, as he grinned at the unfortunate knight. The opportunity for victory had come, Ben prowled to the faltering warrior, calling his mother’s blade to his hand after dropping his buy’ce behind him. The heir apparent of Anakin Skywalker narrowed his dark eyes and his enemy was forced down to their knees with unseen hands. 

The damned one circled the Knight of Ren who was held down in the salty red earth. Bloody and victorious, Ben Solo was an apex predator of the infinite jungle that was the Galaxy; a beast of black, red, and shining iron that stood before the tired fallen villain. The masked warrior’s ragged heavy breaths huffed with a modulated warble from their vocoder, emulating the terror that the mandalorian could feel from the devil encased in black steel. 

Ragged breaths of fear.

Growling pants of rage.

So different, yet impossibly similar.

The dead Prince of Alderaan, the king of black and crimson- rose his steel and plasma blades into the air. The fearful one, the strongest of the Knights of Ren charged his opponent but was held in place while in mid swing of his phrik sythe. Left to look on as his comrade was to fall at the hands of the mandalorian he should have killed on Jakku when he took the scavenger girl. The grid-faced warrior watched as Ben brought down his weapons and severed through meat and bone, the knight’s arms fell to the blood stained salt beside him; the sound deadened by the harrowing, retched, modulated scream that bellowed from the steel mask. The dar’manda maneuvered his blades and swung them both through the Knight of Ren’s throat, the collision of beskar and plasma sparked and flared as Ben beheaded his enemy. 

Ben’s shoulders slumped and an eerie calm washed over him as the headless, armless body fell onto Crait’s red and salt covered dirt. A calm that caused him to lose his concentration that held the last knight in place. Once the charging footsteps stamped through the earth was heard from behind him, the mandalorian turned around and met the ultrasonic blade, cutting deep along the right side of his face. The pressure and burning sensation of the unusual blade carving into his skin caused Ben to turn around and stagger for a moment. When the fear mongering warrior readied himself for another strike, Ben held out his hand and began to clench his fist into a tight ball. The masked opponent froze and after he dropped his scythe he reached for his throat. The mandalorian steadied himself and he turned to face his enemy, revealing the long, clean wound that trailed from his forehead, the bridge of his nose and down his right cheek, a deep maroon canyon in a land of vermillion plains.

Ben loosened his fingers from his palm and asked the knight, “Gar gai, rejorhaa’ir ni bic, darjetii _Your name, tell me it, Sith_.”

The force’s grip loosened on the last knight’s throat and he answered the mandalorian in a strangled vocoded voice, “V-Vicrul.”

Ben approached Vicrul with slow menacing steps through salt and red soil until he stood inches from the knight who struggled to breathe and trembled under the Force’s invisible grip. The world of Crait was silent, the quiet broken only by Vicrul’s huffing gasps for air, gasps soon grew into loud heaving wheezes as Ben called his beskad to his hand and drove the iron blade into the Knight of Ren’s gut. The impaled warrior stifled his grunts and moans of pain, he refused to give the mandalorian the satisfaction of hearing him cry out in pain.

With eyes dark, almost black in the dull sunlight of Crait’s palled landscape, Ben solo peered into Vicrul’s covered face. “You’re afraid,” the bloody one uttered in a low voice as he slide the beskar sword up the knights torso with a slow agonizing pace. 

“ _Fascinating_ ,” Ben echoed Vicrul’s words from Jakku, “that a monster who insights fear, spreading it like a poisonous miasma, is _so afraid to die_.”

Vicrul convulsed in pain as Ben continued to drive the embedded blade further up at a torturous momentum. The smell of blood and innards were crude and sweet against the salty air of Crait’s empty atmosphere. It was an acrid scent that Ben Solo never wanted in his nose ever again, but he knew that for the rest of his days it would always haunt and linger in his mind and heart. 

With a shuttering rattle of an exhale; Vicrul’s convulsions slowed and soon ceased, the last knight fell limp and his dead form slid off of the mandalorian’s beskad, dropping to the ground as Ben looked down at the fallen warrior with contempt darkening his already black irises. 

The Knights of Ren were dead, but the black beast of Crait was far from finished. The mandalorian caught a glimpse of the battering cannon that still stood at the edge of the horizon, it’s core drawing energy from atoms and subatomic particles that drifted freely in the air, pulling them in and creating an ominous glow that would soon burst a beam of indiscriminate destruction at the Resistance base behind him.

Ben Solo held his hands out in front of him, alone and covered in blood he coerced the Force to bend in his will, channeling all of his anger, his hatred, his insecurities and shame. Ben even drew stregnth from his undying attachment and love for his mother and father, his uncle, Din and Vod’ika; and most of all, his desire for Rey’s affection. Last, in the deepest part of his soul, Ben accepted and relished in his lust to have her flesh beneath his, a want he had feared and suppressed as such things were foreign to him his whole life; until he saw her eyes in the dream he had before this harrowing epic journey began. He brought forth all of it to accomplish one deed and that was to destroy the battering cannon that was now glowing bright as its capacity was reaching necessary limits. 

The mandalorian roared his war howl into the air and with it he felt a pulse flow from deep within the ground shoot up his legs, the sky cracked like a whip and lightening shot from his gloved fingertips. The root-like beams of light crackled through the world around him and streamed into the battering cannon. The weapon of destruction exploded instantly, sending a shockwave of dust, salt, and fire throughout the planet’s surface.   
The warrior prince of Alderaan held himself steady against the force of the explosion’s burst of air as it tried to throw him back into the mountain base. When the dust settled and all that remained of the First Order fleet was mangled steel and flickering flames that licked their forked tongues up to the sky. Ben’s obsidian eyes blinked in a flutter as he seemed to return to reality, and the dark beast of his heart crept back into the depths of his psyche, satiated with its blood offering.

The mandalorian’s eye grew wide with horror as he stared at the destruction he wrought, he looked down at his body, gazing at his armored arms and hands covered in blood. When the smell of gore hit him; along with the sight of the mutilated and dismembered knights of Ren, Ben fell to his knees and emptied the contents of his stomach.

Maker what had he done?

Ben solo searched the landscape with desperation until his eyes spotted his buy’ce nestled in the salt laced red earth. He hurried to his feet and stumbled to the signature piece of his Mandalorian armor. When the shamed mandalorian picked up the beskar helmet and stared into the black smooth glass of the T-visor, meeting his eyes with his reflection, one of a man whose face and hair was caked thick with the drying blood of his enemies.

Ben Solo saw only a monster.

The monster Luke feared Ben would become if the old man had not left him for dead on the hot white sands of Mandalore.

The dar’manda looked around again as he held his beskar helmet close to his breastplate, taking in the disaster that he brought on the quiet planet around him. It mattered not the reasons why; Ben had carried out exactly what everyone close to him feared he would. No amount of nobility and good intentions could cover the fact that Ben Solo had allowed darkness in his heart to manifest itself into power unimaginable. The forsaken prince of the dead planet Alderaan could not help but feel that he was weak to seek help from the Dark side of the Force. He wondered if his grandfather had felt the same soul crushing conflict within him when he first allowed evil to grant him stregnth.

Then again, if he had felt any guilt at all, would Anakin Skywalker still dove as deep as he did into Darkness all those years ago? The Sith lord was willing to execute his daughter after murdering her adopted family and the entire planet that was her home since shortly after she was born. Beyond that, he killed his master and former best friend without the slightest remorse.

Remorse that Ben felt was tearing his soul into pieces. 

In that moment Ben realized everyone around him was wrong, and their fear of Vader stole away any faith they should have had in him. But ben learned from his found family that those bound by blood, though cherished, do not have to be the ones to decide his fate. Nor could those bound by honor do the same, that family showed Ben that he alone was the master of his fate; and he finally understood.

To have Darkness does not make a person evil; to have Light does not guarantee a person is good. 

Ben lowered his hands to his sides and squared his shoulders, holding his buy’ce at his hip, and he knew what it was time to do.

Ben Solo, the man known to the Galaxy as Black Beskar Talyc Solus, turned and walked away from the wreckage. A victorious survivor who saved his family, his friends and the woman he loved; along with the countless nameless fighters of the Resistance, and headed to the Mythosaur.

It was now time for the Mandalorian to return home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will try to get the next chapter typed up and posted next week. If not, in the meantime I'm on Twitter and Tumblr. I use the hellsite more than the bird app. Drop an ask and I'll gladly answer. You can find my posts and page under the #bendalorian tag or the title of this fic.
> 
> I am also interested in joining a Reylo Discord server if anyone has any good suggestions.
> 
> Until next time. 
> 
> And if you are in the US, be safe and careful, and know I understand as I'm here too.


	49. Homeward Voyages

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey learns a thing or two about herself. Ben searches to find his brothers in honor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the sluggish updates. It has been difficult to sit down and type up my rough drafts lately. 
> 
> Know that I have a few chapters written ahead, but I have been trying to organize the outline for the last chapters. I'm hoping to finish writing the rough draft in the next few months. After that I'll be back to regular weekly updates.
> 
> In the meantime enjoy. And as always thank you for reading.

“Open this karking door! Now!”

“We can’t, Rey, the cables somehow snapped when you _flew_ in here!” Poe shouted from the crowd of techs and mechanics that were inspecting the damage that was done to the damaged pulley system used to open the door. 

The scavenger continued to scream and pound her fist on the thick steel door that barred her from assisting Ben on the other side. She could see through the eyes of the Force that blood was spilling in rivers, and death hovered close to reap the souls that were meeting their demise. She was feeling her heart tear in two as she feared the worst for the man she had grown to love. Fighting for his life outside the walls of the Resistance base.

Rey of Jakku refused to helplessly stand by like a fool, she would not accept her inability to do _something_! Before the scavenger realized what was happening, the world around her was swallowed in darkness and a bright green light spun all around her. The next second the green light and black miasma dissipated and Rey fell forward into the salt covered red sand. Rey caught herself as she crashed to the ground with a soft thump. From the corner of her eye she saw the plumes of smoke in the distance and behind her she could hear muffled shouting fill her ears.

“Rey? _Rey_!? Where did she go!?”

“What the kriff just happened?”

“Did she just vanish?”

Rey furrowed her brow, baffled by what her friends were saying and trying to piece together how she managed to disappear and _reappear_ somewhere else. What kind of power in the Force did she just accomplish? 

Was this...the Dark Side of the Force?

The scavenger thought for a moment on her emotions and desires, all she truly wanted was to pass the door to help Ben.

Ben!

Rey stood up and burst into a sprint towards the smoldering horizon ahead. There was no way, Force or no Force, a single human could not do all this and survive. The scavenger saw the remains of the knights of Ren and halted to a stop, her body froze and a chill of dread rushed through her. The scavenger's heart sank at the terrible sight before her.

Dumbfounded by the carnage, Rey barely heard the hiss of steel and plasma colliding and melting away in the distance. When her brain stopped ringing and her adrenaline eased through her blood, Rey turned around to see a green light saber blade slowly bleed through the golden molten steel that yielded to the Jedi sword’s might. The scavenger watched as the hole was cut and a burst of the Force pushed the thick door forward to reveal Finn on the other side. Rose and Poe stood at each side of him before they spotted Rey and climbed over the fallen barrier of the Resistance stronghold and sprinted to their friend as fast as they could.

When the three Resistance fighters saw the bloody scene behind Rey they too froze in the salty sands of Crait. Rose covered her mouth with both hands and took a step back. Poe ran his hands through his sweat wicked hair in shock as he gazed at the horrific sight before him. Finn lowered his head in mourning; more and more the defector saw death on both sides as senseless and abhorrent. More and more Finn wanted the violence and suffering to simply end.

The former stormtrooper walked to Rey, who stood silent and her Force-signature elusive.

“Rey.” Finn spoke to his friend, “Who-”

“You know who did this.” Rey resigned to the Jedi in training. She could not look her friend in the eye as she spoke, and her hair in loose waves flowed in the wind in a somber flight.

Finn nodded, confirming what the scavenger already knew, and he pulled his first friend into a healing embrace. It was then that the scavenger of Jakku, whose life was fueled by survival; the lonely girl who saw terrible events and nightmarish actions by man and creatures alike, all without shedding a single tear of self pity, grabbed hold of the first friend she ever made tight and sobbed into his chest.

No defeat Rey had ever reached, no fall from grace she ever experienced, no misunderstood lesson of Luke Skywalker’s teachings on Ahch-To compared to this moment.

Rey of Jakku had failed the one person she felt she had the stregnth and desire to succeed for. How could she call herself a Jedi? How could she call herself a friend, a companion, _a lover_? The scavenger felt her hair whipping in the winds of Crait, the bitter reminder that the gore and destruction around her was an act of love of all things.

How could the Force be so cruel?

And why, _how_ could love create the dystopian sight around her?

“Love did not do this, Rey.”

Everyone turned around to see the source of the voice, calm with age yet burned deep with pain, to see General Organa. Standing like a stoic mother at her adopted children with the old broom still clutched in her grip to hold her steady. The last Skywalker twin quickly cast aside the old broom and hobbled to the bodies to exchange makeshift crutch for the tall poleaxe left behind by the dead knight. After hoisting the heavy weapon straight and bracing herself, feigning the dignity that the crude weapon was an extension of herself all along.

It was an odd sight really, the small elderly woman standing among the dead with a weapon nearly three heads taller than her at her side, all while dressed in a thick linen coat that draped to her feet and the collar high enough to cover her chin. 

Truly a princess of warrior right, and a sentinel for democracy across the Galaxy.

The vibrancy of the red earth paled in Leia’s presence. 

The General readied herself to speak to her children as she stood among the horrors her son had committed, from the dissected limbs to the fiery ruins beyond, acts she herself was responsible for by echoing her father’s greatest sin; Fear. 

Leia feared losing her son just had her father feared losing her mother. And in the end, just like her father before her, the Princess General’s loss was immeasurable. 

How she did all she could to distance herself from her father’s black stain on the Galaxy, only to find she was just like him in her own way. 

Destiny was a difficult creature to avoid.

“I did.” Leia Organa confessed to her children of war. “By pushing away the one I loved most in this Galaxy. And by fearing my own destiny. The fault is only mine.”

Finn, and Poe each narrowed their eyes as they tried to understand what exactly the General was explaining to them. Rose lowered her eyes knowing too well the secret the General had been hiding.

The silent contemplations and inquiries were stopped, broken by Rey’s small laughter that spilled from her throat, muffled by her friend’s shirt. It was a bitter, cold thing that escaped the scavenger as she released her hold on Finn and softly pushed herself away from her consoling friend. Rey turned to face General Organa, Leia observed the tresses that flowed from the survivor of Jakku’s shoulders in chestnut ribbons.

But eyes bright as a golden Kyber crystal forged of fire and lightening, rather than ice and magma.

“So you know, General?”

“Yes,” the Princess answered her brother’s apprentice.

“How long?” Rey spat out in a voice she saved only for the worst thieves Jakku had to offer. One crude and feral, and her eyes of unusual amber brown were dark with a blaze that needed to be soothed lest she act as cruel as her voice sounded.

“I’ve had my suspicions for quite some time. But as of now, I am certain.” Leia turned herself around to look on at the results of her son’s actions. “Only Ben could do this.”

Finn allowed himself time to let the revelation sink in. Poe and Rose glanced at each other, each confirming to the other that they heard the same thing, before returning their gaze to Leia. 

A rumble was heard from the mountains where the base stood strong and lonely, everyone turned to face the Mythosaur emerge from behind the ridge and lower its black and green wings to fly away, disappearing in a flash of light as the ship hit light speed.

The fight Resistance fighters watched the Kom’rk- class fighter vanish into the black of space that lie beyond the atmosphere. The revelation that Ben Solo; the lost son of Han Solo and Leia Organa, was not only alive, but he somehow by the fate of the Force had ended up fighting alongside them, had suddenly set in for Finn and Poe Dameron. Rose on the other hand feigned shock as she had realized everything on Cantonica in the arms of Armitage Hux on a ballroom floor. All three; however, had noticed that Rey seemed unshaken by everything that had taken place.

“Was he the one who let your hair down?” Leia asked with a plea in her soul echoing through the Force to know.

Rey chose not to answer and only seethed in silence.

“Rey, I understand and know why you are angry. And you have every right to be.”

“I’m not a child, Leia!”

“And it seems you also are not human!” General Organa revealed unexpectedly in response to Rey’s abrasive attitude.

The Jedi, the pilot and the mechanic could not hide their shock upon hearing the General’s words, and again Rey reacted with nothing. Leia stared at the younglings, her brown eyes were stern and determined.

“Only the most powerful of the Force-witches of Dathomir could materialize their forms the way you did, Rey of Dathomir, and only when they were home often to maintain their ethereal connection to their planet.”

Now Leia’s words had caught the scavenger’s attention. No longer was Rey so hostile towards the General, and as her anger ebbed away curiosity and intrigue replaced it.

“Legend was told that the last Nightsister possessed such gifts. But possible lineage aside, to be untrained, and so far from Dathomir’s Ether, despite these obstacles you managed to cast _magick_ proves exactly who you are, Rey.” Leia continued as Rey stared with golden eyes and flowing chestnut hair. Using the Pole Axe to stabilize her steps, General Organa limped to the scavenger and revealed more.

“It was said that she had golden amber eyes. That she travelled with a rogue Padawan and other misfits on a ship called the Stinger Mantis. But before the battle of Yavin she and the rest of the crew disappeared and were never heard from since.”

The princess of Alderaan stopped before the lost child of Dathomir, “And to think, the Empire believed they had killed off the one true adversary of the Sith, only for the very last to rise up against them.”

“And what of Ben, Leia? What about your son?” Rey’s eyes met Leia’s asking the question with not only her words but her heart.

Leia Organa lifted her chin to the scavenger, “My son has forged his own path without me. Despite what you see in my son, and despite what you see around you. Ben is returning to those who have kept him on the right path.”

Rey craned her head up to Crait’s sky. The greater the distance between Ben and her grew, the more her heart bled in her chest. 

It was the loneliest feeling she had ever experienced.

Leia placed a gentle hand on Rey’s cheek, coaxing the scavenger to look at her. Rey knew in her soul the many times the princess had done the same thing to Ben as a child, and her heart swelled as if he could feel the General’s hand cradling her cheek light years away. “It would seem you also have a place to return to. Dathomir is waiting for you to return home. When you are there, find a clan and learn from them the ways of your people. The trials may be difficult, and you may have to prove yourself to the witches. Most, if not all, are not easy to please.”

“Wait. Master Leia-” Finn interrupted, growing fearful of losing his friend again.

“I told you not to call me that, Finn.” Leia huffed as she lowered her hand from Rey’s cheek. 

The apprentice blew out an indignant breath of his own, “It’s just that- you’re going to just send Rey away?”

“It’s fine, Finn.” Rey answered, but the ache in her heart made her chose words that were meant to hurt, “sending me away would-”

The scavenger was rendered silent by a firm slam the end of the poleaxe striking the ground, causing a small shockwave to erupt from the end of the weapon and across the ground beyond everyone’s feet. Though the General hid it well, her Force abilities were a power to be reckoned with.

“Enough!” She shouted in a loud commanding voice, “You have a home here with us! One in which you will always be welcome! But the Force demands you return to the planet born under a red sun, for what you will find there will be more than answers!”

Before the scavenger could retort Leia added, “My son will always have a home here as well, but that is for him to decide.”

Having had enough Rey of the Nightsisters channeled the Force to dissipate her being into a void of black and bright green light. And when the flares of green and black faded away, nothing remained.

Poe and Rose looked around, regardless of this being the second time they witnessed something so unusual, they still could not help but still be baffled that the scavenger could just _disappear_. The pilot pointed to his Jedi friend and asked, “Can you do that?” to which Finn answered with a quick shake of his head. 

From the mountain base the Millennium Falcon burst from the stone and shot into the air before hitting light speed and Rey disappeared for the third and final time that day. While the others tried to shield their eyes from the wave of salt and sand that came flying their way, General Organa stood still and stoic against the debris, unrelenting to the small storm with a smirk on her face.

“May the Force be with you, young Nightsister.”

**

“This is the Mythosaur calling out to the Razor Crest, can you hear me?” Ben spoke into the comlink.

It had only been a couple hours since the mandalorian departed from Crait and the Resistance, and he believed to only been in the hyperlane for about a single standard hour. The blood that stuck to his armor and flesh was beginning to putrefy, but Ben was desperate to make contact with Din. He needed his brother’s guidance.

He wanted to go home.

“Damn it, answer me, Djarin!” The disgraced Mandalorian shouted into the com-mic before he tried to run his blood soaked hand into his hair that was sticky with gore.

“I need you,” he sobbed into the link before he cut the mic and slid to the floor and sat down. Bending his knees to his chest and bracing his elbows on them as he held his head in his hands. 

Gods, he needed a shower.

_Brrrrr!?_

Ben peeked through his hands to see a porg standing beside him, staring at him with giant curious eyes. The bloody one rolled his eyes and shook his head while he lowered his hands. “What do you want?” Ben huffed at the bird.

“You know damn well what I want.”

The prince’s eyes grew wide and he looked around the ship until he spotted Rey standing by the door to the galley. Her hair was still down and Ben swore he could smell salt beneath the rancid odor of rotting blood.

Every time Ben saw Rey, she was always the most beautiful sight he ever laid eyes on. The sorrow in her eyes, the pout of her lip, even when melancholy the scavenger was lovely.

“I want for you to forgive yourself.”

“I can’t, I _slaughtered_ them.”

“You _saved_ us!”

“I’m a monster, Rey,” Ben’s dark eyes shined with tears.

“You’re a hero, Ben.”

“Ibac miit cuyir naas at ni _That word is nothing to me_!” The dar’manda muttered defiantly. There was nothing heroic about what he did.

Rey took soft steps to Ben, and lowered herself to her knees. She reached out and held his face in her hands, uncaring of the copious amount of blood that covered his skin; urging him to look at her.

“But you’re _everything_ to me.”

Rey and Ben gazed into each other’s eyes for what seemed like a small eternity. The mandalorian’s eyes grew soft and yielding as he leaned in and placed his forehead onto the scavenger’s, a heaving sigh escaped him. To know that, despite his wrongdoings, the woman he loved still saw good in him eased his suffering conscience. And though the caverns of self hate were dark and winding, Rey’s compassion was a lantern that would always light his way.

“Where are you going?” Ben asked as he stared at Rey with hooded eyes in a hushed voice. A timbre that sent a pulse through the core of the scavenger’s being.

“Like you, I’m going home.”

The moment was shattered by a familiar voice breaking through the static of the com channel.

“This is Din Djarin of the Razor Crest. Talyc, are you there?”

Ben turned his back to Rey to look at the control panel of his ship, feeling their connection split and the warmth of Rey’s hands leave him. Leaving behind the cool air of the ship’s climate controls to caress his cheeks. The dar’manda hurried to the control panel and pressed the mic button to speak.

“This is Talyc Solus. Ori’vod, where are you?”

“Tattooine. How come?”

Tattooine? Of all places? 

“Why?” Ben asked in a voice that was more demanding and cold than he intended.

“I have a mark with me that asked to be taken there. And the Child seems to insist on sticking around for a while. Not to mention I have a couple old friends I could visit while I’m here.” What Din said next caused Ben to struggle to breathe for a moment. “What’s troubling you?”

Where could he start?

“There’s too much to tell through the com. I’ll tell you when I see you.”

Ben overheard the jovial cooing and laughter of Vod’ika from the Razor Crest and throughout the Mythosaur.

“Seems the little one is excited to see you.” The head of the Clan of Three laughed softly into the comlink. 

“Ni copad naas or’atu. Ni copad at slanar yiam. _I want nothing more. I want to go home._ ” The lost mandalorian confessed in a broken voice.

“Yiam Kelir ratiin Ke’pare par gar, vod. _Home will always wait for you, brother_.” Din assured Ben as best as he could through the com, “Haa’taylir gar Nusujii _see you soon_.”

“Sa iviin’yc sa te Ka’ra alorir ni _As fast as the stars lead me_.”

The feed was cut and Ben sat alone in the quiet innards of the Mythosaur. He changed the ship’s trajectory to Tattooine, the birthplace of his legacy. And with a heavy sigh Ben walked out of the cockpit to head to the ‘fresher so that he may try to scrub away the muck and sin of the day he fought through from his skin and his armor.

A day he survived victorious. But at the cost of his soul. Apprehension wrapped its gnarled, boney fingers around his throat. Would he be forgiven? Could Ben tell Din that in a fit of hopelessness and devotion to another he shed his beskar face and revealed the flesh and bone within?

The lost prince would simply have to figure that out when he reached Tattoine.

**

Rey sat alone on the floor in the lounge of the Millennium Falcon beside the holochess table. She stared at her blood stained hands, whispering to the desert goddess R’iia, begging she grant mercy on Ben and herself in the unknown future that lay before them.


	50. A Tapestry Frayed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A trio of Force-using mercenaries embark on a mission, a traitor is handed his fate, and castaways find a new home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updates have been slow due to work and life. Hopefully when spring comes updates will return to their weekly schedule. 
> 
> Thanks so much for sticking this out with me and enjoying this story as much as I have enjoyed sharing it.

Sailing a route unknown in the black, in a ship surrounded by unfamiliar clusters of stars and nebulas; a man opened his blue eyes and beads of sweat rolled down his smooth hairless crown.

There was no way the vision he had witnessed through the Force could be true.

His best friend had been dead for ten years.

And why was he dressed like a Mandalorian?

The bald man with light copper skin shot up from his meditative position on his bunk and sprinted from his meager cabin, searching through the small vessel for his two closest comrades.

“Voe! Hennix? Damn it where are you guys!?” the man shouted down the narrow hallway of the ship.

“Tai!” a woman with bronze skin and silver hair tied in dozens of braids ran down the hallway to meet her friend. “What’s wrong?” she blinked and reached out to Tai, grabbing hold of his shoulder, her green eyes seemed to stare through his flesh to see his uneasiness. “Gods, you look like you’ve seen a ghost!” 

“As a matter of fact, Voe, I think I have.” Tai answered the platinum haired woman, her eyes narrowed as she tried to understand. “Ben is alive, Voe! I saw him!”

Voe’s emerald eyes widened and flared with displeasure, the exiled Jedi had not heard the name of her fellow apprentice and rival for ten calm years. And it was ten years too short! As hearing the bastard’s name was still annoying as the screech of a grass trekker in her ears.

“Voe, I know you and Ben had your differences, but if he’s alive, maybe Luke will reopen the temple!” Tai implored his friend, trying to convince her to forgive old grudges.

“That won’t happen,” a third voice uttered with a strained tone. Voe and Tai turned to their Quarren friend Hennix. The creature’s face seemed damp with tears.

“Hennix,” the woman whispered, furrowing her brow as she dread the news she was about to receive, “what do you-”

“I just heard a Galaxy-wide transmission from the Resistance channels. Master Skywalker is dead.”

With the breaths stolen from their lungs, Voe and Tai allowed the news to sink in. The woman placed a hand over her mouth to hold in her sobs. Her human friend lowered his head in mourning when he noticed her free hand balled up in a trembling fist.

“He did this,” Voe hissed to herself before looking to her two only friends. “If Ben Solo is alive and Master Luke is now dead, there’s no other explanation other than that bastard sought revenge!”

“Voe, surely you don’t believe that. We’re Jedi.” Tai tried to calm his friend’s anger.

“ _Jedi_? We are no Jedi, Tai! For ten years we’ve been homeless mercenaries! Wandering the Galaxy for our next job, our next meal, the next place to lay our heads down to rest! All because of that spoiled brat, who pranced around thinking he was better than us because of his lineage!” though her words were brash and her voice loud, Voe’s mournful eye’s revealed her fury was only a facade.

“C’mon, you _know_ he never felt that way!” it was Tai’s turn to shout in the cramped hallway. “Don’t allow your envy to send you down a dark path!”

The Quarren stepped out of the way and allowed his friends to pass and continue their bickering as they stomped ahead to the helm of the ship. Hennix shook his head; wondering when either one would let go of their grudges and admirations for the lost apprentice, and followed shortly after.

In the cockpit Tai and Hennix watched their comrade sit down in the pilot’s seat and begin entering a frequency into the comlink.

“Voe, who exactly are you comming at this hour?” 

As she entered the frequency channel, the white haired woman spoke without facing her friends, “The one person ruthless enough to help us avenge our master and taught us everything we know. I’m comming Cara Dune!”

**

The cell was dark on the Finalizer’s brig. Armitage had been sent to the lower most, dankest holding cell the First Order had on the Star Destroyer. Not even the metronome of marching feet could be heard above the Arkanian, his only company was his shivering breath and the sound of his heart beating in his chest.

It was no matter, despite how the dead silence would send a lesser man to madness and the chilly, damp air would freeze the spirit of someone weaker. Armitage found his current environment rather cathartic for his soul. The silence brought peace of mind, and the climate reminded him of fall time in Arkanis. The only pain the man felt in his heart was brought on by the thought of never seeing Rose again.

That and the gnawing thoughts that she may be better off.

Hux stared up at the duristeel door that screeched open due to the layers of mildew and rust lining its edges. A tall, pale man, with a high hairline and gaunt cheeks entered the room. Age had grayed his hair and his eyes were a dull malicious blue. The man wore the black simple uniform of the First Order High Command. The clicking of his pristine shoes was jarring to Armitage and downright ruined his peaceful contemplations. And with green eyes full of hate, he looked at the man he had known all too well for many years.

“Armitage, my dear boy, what kind of mess have you gotten yourself into?” Admiral Pryde inquired with a voice that was venomous and uncaring. Armitage was unsurprised that the man before him was so cold to the son of one of his fellow commanders. Enric Pryde, among others, was quick to make a fool of him as a frightened and insecure child.

But no more was Armitage Hux frightened or insecure.

“One I am quite proud of, let me assure you,” the red head quipped in a smooth monotone.

Admiral Pryde crouched down to meet Hux eye to eye before striking his cheek with the back of his hand. The slap hit the same side of his face as his freshly blackened eye, causing the former General to wince with pain as he fell to the floor on his side. Before he could process the pain in his face, the Admiral stood up and gave Armitage a kick in his ribs.

‘For good measure,’ the Arkanian assumed internally.

Armitage sucked in the air that his lungs seemed to refuse as he tried to calm his seizing diaphragm.

“There he is,” Enric cooed with a sinister grin, “there’s the sniveling, little crybaby, bastard I came down here to see.”

“I- _gasp_ \- won’t tell you anything,” Hux chocked out, trying to cram as much words into a single breath as he could, before succumbing to the approaching coughing fit that soon overtook him.

“Tell? No, no, Armitage, I could care less about the little rat that crawled into your bed. _No_. I’m here to speak to you about some information regarding a letter found in Captain Phasma’s quarters on Coruscant.” Admiral Pryde inspected his nails, grimacing at the dirt that seemed to stain his hand after hitting the traitor. “You see, or rather, you _know_ it is regulation and protocol that all First Order officers of rank must have a safety deposit box stored with any items or documents of high importance. This is a precaution that in the event of an officer’s death, the First Order has everything necessary to absorb any and all funds and properties of the deceased for-”

“Get to the karking point!” Armitage huffed out between coughs. He knew the policies and arrangements of the First Order like he knew the many ways to kill a man, he had even wrote some of them himself.

“My point is, among Phasma’s deed’s and credit notes, there was a confessional letter explaining her involvement in the murder of your father, Commandant Brendol Hux! An assassination masterminded by _you_!”

Phasma? _Confession_!? That damned devil woman managed to sell him out, despite being dead as a duristeel rivet! 

“And what is it you plan to do to this traitorous murderer, Enric?” Hux spat out from his place on the damp steel floor, his lips curled in a cruel smile and his eyes practically glowed with hate at the Admiral. “Make an example of me? Kill me?” the redhead snarled from the floor.

Enric Pryde laughed in the hollow cell, its echoes ominous as the dark look in the man’s eyes. “No, dear boy, I have something much worse in store for you. Guards!”

When the Admiral bellowed his command, two stormtroopers entered the cell and grabbed Armitage by the arms so they could drag him away and lead him to his unknown fate.

“I will not tell you where I plan to send you. But I will tell you that you will beg for death as a mercy the longer you live from here on out.”

Oh, how disappointed the Admiral will be when he finds out that Armitage Hux was not man who turned to begging.

**

“Um...Hello?” The stormtrooper TC-0501 hollered into the gaping hole in the door to the Resistance Base. Behind him stood the tall, broad-shouldered trooper, JT-1226, who decided that yelling into the base was not brash enough and just walked right through the hole with LL-1108 and SM-1115 following close behind.

“Do you think they left?” LL-1108, who was smaller in frame than the other three soldiers in white, asked in a high pitched feminine voice. Once the three others had entered the base, TC-0501 decided he would rather not be the odd one out and met his fellow combatants in the empty room.

“Beat’s me, small fry,” JT-1226 answered his comrade.

“Ugh, you don’t need to call me that anymore, Phasma’s dead, y’know!”

“Iuhuh, I think it suits you well, _Tiny_!”

The four stormtroopers began to chuckle softly in the dusty room, but were cut off by the pressure of blaster barrels pushing into their backs. They immediately dropped their weapons and raised their hands up with caution, letting their enemies know that they were now unarmed and no longer a threat. The Resistance were known for their higher moral standing than those of the First Order. And the four troopers hoped that was no different today.

“Don’t shoot, ya dummies, we’re unarmed!” TC-0501 shouted at the Resistance fighters who held them all at blasterpoint behind them; much to the chagrin of his comrades who all turned to at the outspoken soldier. 

“Who else is with you,” the familiar voice of the infamous Poe Dameron rang in their ears. He sounded so calm, which made the four troopers more apprehensive than relieved as the olive skinned Resistance leader exited the shadows of the room. The four troopers began to wonder just how many more were waiting beyond the shadows.

“‘Who else!?’” JT-1226 exclaimed, “I don’t know where _you’ve_ been, but _we_ just saw a Mando completely Vader the whole karking fleet outside! We’d be among the wreckage if it weren’t for FN-2187.”

“Finn,” another familiar voice spoke, one the four instantly recognized with fondness as the famous defector of the First Order joined Poe Dameron in the dim light of the control room from the darkness, “my name is Finn.”

SM-1115 entered the conversation after seeing the friend he had encountered on the Finalizer step forward. “Finn, we have no supplies, and no way off of this planet. All we know is if we stay here, we die.” The stormtrooper Finn knew as Slappy pleaded to the defector with his eyes, hoping the friend he made on the Finalizer would grant mercy to the opposition.

Finn raised his hands up in an effort to calm down the anxious survivors “Look, I don’t want that for any of you. But I _do_ want you all to make a choice.” The former trooper glanced at Poe, making sure that what he was about to ask would be accepted by the Resistance. Poe gave him a kind smile and a nod, letting Finn know that permission was granted. 

“Now you can either join us, or we let you go. Name the planet and we’ll drop you off. And if you’re worried, know you have my word as a fellow soldier that none of us will ever bother you again.” Finn informed the last stormtroopers on Crait.

“Wait- _what_!?” LL-1108 gasped low with a tilt of her head.

“Seriously!?” JT-1226 stammered.

Much to the surprise of the other troopers, SM-1115 lift his helmet from his head and threw it aside, the smile on his face was beaming and his green eyes bright as emeralds in the sunlight, “You mean I can get my own Rebel jacket!?” he shouted with excitement.

The other three stormtroopers turned to their comrade. “What?” SM-1115 said to them with a shrug, “I like how they dress.” Finn’s eyes met Poe’s again, and with a smirk the pilot nodded. Finn looked at Slappy and gave the trooper gleeful nod, which provoked a bigger smile that revealed the trooper’s teeth.

Finn could not help but laugh at his friend’s enthusiasm.

Poe crossed his arms, and stared at the last three troopers, “so what’ll it be fellas?” and looking to LL-1108 he added, “and lady? Will ya join us?”

“Well I think it’s already on the table that I’m in.” SM-1115 announced to his fellow compatriots.

Finn’s brown eyes lit up at the fact that another member of the First Order saw what he did in the Resistance. Poe kept to himself the joy in his heart, seeing the man he had grown to care for so deeply become so beautiful when he was happy. 

Absolutely stunning, really.

LL-1108 removed her helmet to reveal a very young olive skinned girl with light brown hair and eyes. A small dimple cut into her cheek when she smiled at SM-1115 and Finn. “Me too,” the girl declared to the room.

“LL, are you sure about this?” JT-1226 questioned the smallest trooper.

LL-1108 looked up at her large comrade whom she looked up to like a big brother. “More than anything in my life,” she answered with brown eyes that shimmered with something JT-1226 had never seen in them before, something new and beautiful.

Hope.

JT-1226 sighed, he could never let the kid go out on her own, his broad shoulders sagged before he reached up to his helmet and removed it like the others. He had a well trimmed beard and ash brown hair with gray eyes, “If the kid goes, _I_ go.”

All that was left was TC-0501. The audience in the room stared at the last stormtrooper still fully armored with bated breath.

“I don’t know,” TC-0501 sighed, “I just don’t wanna end up fighting my brother. We’ve been through so much as it is, to be enemies would be too much. He should be the one here. Not me.”

Finn felt an impulse to approach the last stormtrooper, who took a single step back. “Don’t worry, I promise I won’t hurt you,” the defector assured TC-0501, before placing a hand on his plastoid pauldron. The stormtrooper turned Jedi apprentice saw a vision through the eyes of the Force of the two stormtroopers on Takodana arguing about the consequences of ending the life of a dying Twi’lek. Recognizing the cadet number as the same stormtrooper who helped evacuate Hux off of the Supremacy.

“Listen,” Finn told TC-0501, “I know your brother. He did something very important for me.” Finn’s eyes met with Rose’s who still stood in the shadows out of view. “And I think he would want you to do this. More than that, I think he would want you to be free of the burdens of the First Order.”

Upon hearing the words, TC-0501 had made his decision. He placed his gloved hands on the sides of his helmet and lifted the face of the First Order away. His hair was a dark umber, but trimmed short, and he had bright hazel green eyes that seemed even brighter against his copper skin and the mottled specks of sienna freckles that dotted his roman nose.

Finn was ecstatic, he was four for four on his first recruitment. His smile was beaming when announced to his reunited comrades words that provoked a cheer from the Resistance members who fled the shadows to greet their new friends and fellow fighters with open arms.

“Welcome to the Resistance!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will have some surprise appearances and a much awaited reunion!


	51. The Mandalorian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben reaches Tattooine, encounters old legends and the greatest test as a Mandalorian.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter was a doozy. What I had originally written was not very good. I felt characters were not portrayed as authentic and I rewrote it entirely. 
> 
> This chapter is the beginning of a turn in the story and I wanted it to be powerful.
> 
> I hope I succeeded.
> 
> Enjoy

Tattooine was exactly what Ben Solo had expected; bright, hot and miserable. Not as bight or hot as Jakku, but past generations of slavery and desperation resonated through every grain of sand that surrounded him at Lars Homestead, making the stay all the more unpleasant. 

His own family’s regrets and longings among them. Ben could feel the hopelessness his mother felt during her years as a slave to Jabba the Hut after Boba Fett had captured her and his father for the Empire. Luke’s desires for something more than the monotonous day to day with his aunt and uncle whispered in the dry winds that blew its sandy spit across the mandalorian’s skin. Anakin Skywalker’s loss and vengeance crept up through the hot sand and clawed at Ben’s armored feet and legs.

His grandfather’s pain was the worst of all. To think the Jedi Order; very people who claimed their way was noble and good, had sought to free Anakin of his devotion to his mother, only to sow the seeds of darkness in the young man’s soul by having Shmi Skywalker killed.

Seeds of darkness that bore the poison fruit that was Darth Vader.

The same seeds that Han, Leia, and even Luke feared were taking root in the young man’s heart.

With every sinking step through the dry warm sands, Ben solo decided he hated Tattooine more and more with each passing minute.

Especially Lars Homestead. It still had the lingering scent of burnt flesh and murder in the air near the entrance to the underground home, he could hear the screams of Owen and Beru echoing from the past, stuck in the endless webs of the Force to repeat in an endless loop. It was nauseating, reminding Ben that he had left Crait in a similar state, with a path of blood staining the red sand and salt, and the screams of the Knights of Ren forever trapped in the howling wind.

Ben let out a shallow breath of regret, wondering if there was another way. 

“Tion’jor bid daab, ad’ika? _Why so down, kid?_ ” an unfamiliar voice, gruff with age and a violent part spoke from behind him.

The mandalorian turned around to see an old bald man, whose face was covered in deep scars, dressed in black robes while bracing himself with a long pieced together steel staff. He was accompanied by a woman just as old with a long gray braid that hung over her shoulder and draped down her chest, she held a long range blaster rifle that was more than familiar.

It was karking his!

“Vaii gar ve’ganir ibac tracy’uur ba’buir!? _Where’d you get that blaster, grandmother!?_ ” Ben shouted at the two elders. Provoking a warning shot from the old woman that landed just before his feet, spraying sand and superheated glass everywhere. “Hey! What the hells of Mustafar was that for?”

“Call me that again, kid, and next time I won’t miss!” the woman said in a calm smooth voice. There was no doubt in the mandalorian’s mind that the woman before him was a killer, and by her age as very seasoned one. “But if you really want to know, I got the gun from Jakku. Same place my friend here found this staff. Pried both out of the cold dead hands of a fat piece of garbage named Unkar Plutt.”

Ben glanced at the staff in the scarred man’s hand, made up of mismatched parts and ship machinery. The mandalorian’s heart skipped a beat as he knew right away who had crafted the weapon.

“The gun’s mine! The staff belongs to a woman named Rey. They were lost on Jakku after a bad deal at Niima outpost.” Ben explained as he tramped through the sand and headed to the dune where the old pair stood.

As Ben got closer the woman readied and aimed the blaster at him until the bald man lowered the barrel with his hand. She turned to him and questioned his actions with narrowed eyes. The man in black robes pointed with Rey’s staff at Ben’s breastplate, and the other lowered her weapon before she asked the mandalorian.

“How do you know Mando?”

Taken aback by the question Ben glanced down at the mudhorn sigil. “How do _you_ know Ori’vod?”

Upon hearing the young one’s question, the old man untied the strap that held his robes closed and revealed beskar armor painted green with the crest of the Journeymen in the same spot where Ben’s held the Mudhorn.

There was no way the man before him was who he was. 

He had to be nearly seventy years old! Ancient by Mandalorian standards! How in the Force did he get out of that sarlacc pit?

Ben Solo’s mouth went dry and he swallowed, feeling like a stone struggled to travel down his throat when he did so.

“Mando is my clanhead. I was instructed to meet him here.”

“Does he know you reveal your face to the living.” Boba Fett asked with a crooked grin.

Ben inhaled through his nose and shook his head, “no, he does not.” 

Boba Fett stared at the Mandalorian before him, the elder could see the shame and regret on the young man’s face, “why do you and your brother hold such silly things in high regard? Have you even been to Mandalore?”

“As a matter of fact, I almost died there,” Ben answered, trying to calm the rage that began to build up in his chest.

The old bounty hunter stared at Ben and thought for a moment, “If you knew what your clanhead had in his possession, you would realize you and your tribe could do whatever you want and still be Mandalorians of the highest caliber.” Boba Fett stepped down to meet Ben at the foot of the sand dune, his brown eyes were bright and youthful when he spoke, “Listen, kid, our armor and our honor, all that stuff Mando’s put in your head, it’s a bunch of bantha shit! All a Mandalorian needs to be honored as such, is a family to come home to. Not that ‘Way of the Mandalore’ stuff! It’s just you, Mando, and the little one out there. _That_ is the way.”

In all of Ben Solo’s life, he never thought he would be given such sound and wise advice from the very man who had his father frozen in carbonite. But regardless of who Boba Fett was, the words he spoke were like a key that turned the lock, releasing him of his chains. The galaxy’s most recognized and feared Mandalorian had just told him that he, Ben Solo, was a true Mandalorian. Not for who he was, or his diligence to uphold tradition, but who he stood beside, who he fought for. 

It was the balm on his soul he had been searching for since the beginning of his journey on Jakku.

Until...

“Talyc!?” 

Ben’s shoulders tensed and he turned to face Din Djarin, who stood beside an old Togruta woman in white robes. Her blue eyes searched his mind and heart as they met with his obsidian stare. Before his clanhead had a chance to speak the Togruta woman interrupted the confrontation that was about to take place. 

“Skyguy?” She said as she hurried to Ben with the aid of her staff. The walking aid stood a foot taller than her, revealing an emblem of an owl at the top. She took a closer look and narrowed her eyes, as if realizing her initial thought was a deception of her aged mind and nostalgic heart, “No, you’re-”

The Force revealed to Ben a younger version of the Togruta accompanied by his grandfather long before his fall to the Dark Side.

“I’m his grandson.” Ben answered the former apprentice of Anakin Skywalker. “But I had no idea. There were no records-”

“Like you,” The old Togruta explained to the young Mandalorian, “the Jedi Order was not the path I was meant to follow. But meeting with you most certainly was.” She added with a smile that made the blistering heat of Tattooine seem a bit cooler.

“ _Talyc_!” Din Djarin called out again with more urgency than before. When Ben met with the T-visor that stared at him, hiding a face the younger brother had never seen furious behind it. “What have you done?”

“I-”

“You’ve removed your armor and shown your face to others. Why?” Din’s voice was calm, but the edges tremble with fury, “I took you in, you said you wanted to live this life-- I don’t understand. What happened?”

“Birov kebise ganar ru’banar! _Many things have happened!_ ” Ben cried out in desperation and anger. “Ni ganar kar'taylir darasuum Ni ganar kyr'amur _I have loved, I have murdered_ ,” a single tear rolled down ben’s cheek as he recalled the worst things he had seen on his journey, “Ni haa'taylir ner buir bal ba'vodu ash'amur juaan ni venjii Ni r’mar'eyir val draar or'parguur ni! Val rucuyir r'ijaat de ni! Bal an Ni rucopad at vaabir rucuyir yaimpar yaim! at gar bal vod'ika! _I watched my father and uncle die beside me after I realized the never hated me! They are proud of me! And all I wanted to do was to return home! To you and Vod’ika!_ ”

Ben broke down the walls that held his heart together and allowed himself to be vulnerable as he cried. The Togruta reached out and wrapped her arms around him in an attempt to comfort the agony of the young man who had endured as much as her master but maintained a pure heart as best as he could. Boba and his companion looked at each other with mournful eyes. The old Mandalorian understanding the pain the young one was expressing freely. The bounty hunter was envious of the boy, at least in their dying moments those people got to lay their eyes on their loved one a final time. Jango went off to battle and never returned. And the armor Boba wore since being all he had left of their bond.

“Young Mandalorian,” the Togruta cooed as she pulled away and cradled Ben’s wet face, “I have fought beside and against many of your kind in my youth ages ago, their faces frequently unarmored for the entire Galaxy to see. Even a _Mand’alor herself_ showed her face to companions and strangers alike.” She wiped away another tear that rolled down Ben's cheek. “Din,” she called out without looking behind her.

“Ahsoka?” the masked Mandalorian answered his mark.

“Look at your son.” Ashoka commanded.

Din rapped his knuckles on his breastplate, and Vod’ika began to climb out of his pappoos and over his surrogate father’s shoulder. The Mandalorian held the little green child in his arms and the two stared at each other. Vod’ika’s large brown eyes blinking slow as he seemed to peer into Din’s deepest thoughts. 

“What do you see?”

“I see his face.”

“Good, now _what do you see_?” Ahsoka asked one more time with a tone of urgency in her voice. After doing so, the old Togruta woman placed an arm around Ben’s shoulders and led him back to his clan head. The dar’manda could not raise his eyes to look at Din when they stood before each other.

Din Djarin stared into the eye’s of the Child. The small infant-like creature stared back, his ears were low and his brown eyes glossy with what the nomadic Mandalorain recognized as sorrow.

Din’s visor met with Ahsoka’s eyes, “Why is he so sad?”

“Because you forsake his younger brother, despite never bestowing the same responsibility on him first. The child is older than you both, yet you absolve him of the standard you hold yourself and your brother.” Ahsoka with delicate hands wrapped in cloth strips took hold of Din’s hand and removed the glove, revealing in the clan head’s palm the scar of Ben’s initiation into the clan years before. She repeated the same with Ben and the two Mandalorian’s stared at their scared hands, perplexed by the old woman’s actions.

“The true way of the Mand’alor that binds you three is not in the rituals or the armor you wear.” Ahsoka brought Din and Ben’s hands together the same way they connected that night under a field of twinkling stars and above desert sands. “It is in your loyalty to each other, your honor _for_ each other. It is a bond through both honor, and blood.” the Togruta’s blue eyes peered into Din Djarin’s soul, but they were calm, loving and wise; yet held the wild sparkle of youth within them, “Do you understand now, Din Djarin, master of mudhorns?” 

Din stared at his hand, clasped tight with his younger brother’s, the clan leader could almost feel the blood seeping from an open wound that linked the two men so long ago. He looked down at Vod’ika, who held in his small clawed hand the beskar pendant given to him by the armorer almost a quarter of a standard century before. 

Then Din slowly pulled his hand from Ben’s grip, and reached for his buy’ce. With a single hand Din Djarin had lifted the helmet from his head revealing his face to his son.

And his brother.

Time had been kind to him, the only indication of his age being his hair, once a dark brown had become streaked with silver and white even the stubble and the mustache above his lip were speckled with white and gray. Any other imperfections on his face were due to injuries sustained in various fights during his life as a Mandalorian, in the form of small scars and a slight ridge on the bridge of his nose from a past break. But the most remarkable thing about Din Djarin in that moment was the tears that lingered on the edges of his brown eyes.

Ben’s obsidian eyes grew wide with shock, and Vod’ika rose his ears as both had never seen their clan head’s face. While one was still too small to speak, the other was too dumfounded. The child in Din’s arms reached up and touched the Mandaloriann’s chin with his tiny hand. 

Ahsoka gave the family reunited a loving smile, and she looked over at the infamous bounty hunter and the woman she knew as one of the last of the Bad Batch. Like her, both were lost children of the Clone War in which the Togruta fought. 

Such strange company to witness what she had planned to do.

“Seems so bizarre, but oddly cathartic, to bring people close on the day of my death.”

The two Mandalorians beside Ahsoka faced the woman with appalled faces. With a soft chuckle she turned to Ben, “You understand better than the rest that there is no death-”

“There is only the Force,” The Mandalorian in Black armor finished the Jedi oath taught to him by Luke. “But why here, on Tattooine?”

“Tattooine is a birthplace of many troubles, the suffering of your bloodline is entangled in every part of the planet’s essence. In my years of contemplation and travels, I had stumbled upon an idea. What if the last wave of the Force that flows from us upon our ascension could impact the place where our ascension takes place.”

“Ascension?” Din asked.

“Jetiise Darasuum. _Jedi Eternal._ ” Ben explained quickly and returned his focus on the old Togruta, “Forgive me if I don’t quite understand, my days at the Temple are far behind me.”

“In the past, Jedi were capable of healing wounds, both physical and emotional, with the Force. What if my energy, when it dissipates, can heal the corrupted Force trapped within Tattooine. The planet can be released from the woes of Anakin Skywalker and the maladies that followed after.”

Ben placed his hand on his chin, pondering the unique idea that Ahsoka proposed. To do this could have monumental results. Many planets in the Galaxy have been destroyed or corrupted by the follies of humans and creatures alike throughout hundreds of millennia. And to think, an outcast of the Jedi Order was the one to even conceive the very idea, let alone try to undertake the task. 

“And _you_ are willing to do this at the cost of your life?” The Mandalorian asked his grandfather’s apprentice searching her feelings for any hesitation.

Ahsoka stared up at the sky beyond everyone at Lars homestead, “Yes. It is the least I can do. I looked up to your grandfather, Ben Solo of Chandrilla; I wanted to be cunning and skilled, charismatic and brave as he was. When I felt I had reached that potential, to honor his memory, I realized the person I fought for was the very enemy I was fighting against.”

The Togruta returned her gaze to the descendant of her master and friend, “I may not be able to change the past, but I can try my best to protect the future.” Ahsoka paused as she stared at the Mandalorian. Seeing the result of what Luke tried to accomplish nearly ten years ago. “Though his methods were unsound and unwise, I believe that is all Luke tried to do for you.”

Ben contained the scoff that tried to escape him, “I understand that now, and I still have the scars to prove it.”

“Hmm, scars any Mandalorian would be proud to possess.” The Togruta quipped back.

Before Ben had a chance to react Ahsoka pulled the Mandalorain into her arms in a surprisingly tight embrace for a creature so much older than him. He could feel the longing in her heart that stained her soul. The regrets of not being strong or insightful enough to save her best friend. “May the Force be with you, young Skyguy,” the old Togruta whispered before she backed away from Ben, her expression serene; accepting of the way the Galaxy had evolved since her youth, along the Fate she was walking toward when she turned around and stopped at the center of Lars Homestead. Ahsoka Tano stared at the Force-sensitive Mandalorian and with a smile her voice echoed through the Force.

_They are all with you, Ben Solo of Chandrilla, Child of Mandalore._

_Who?_ Ben implored through the silent rivers of the Force to Ahsoka.

 _Te Mand’alore’ be ruug’la._ The Mand’alors of old.

Ahsoka Tano closed her eyes and with her chin held high her body vanished. When it did so, the Force swirled around Lars Homestead in a remarkable display of her ascension. A small wave of sand rippled across the desert until the Mandalorians and the old mercenary could no longer see it continue its journey in the distance. For the rest present, the event seemed like strange magic and nothing more, but Ben could feel the very air around him become lighter as the weight of the tragic lives that were the Skywalkers before him seemed to lift away; as if the land was excised of the pain and despair that lingered for over half a standard century.

 _Return to Mandalore, Ben Solo, and discover who you were truly meant to be._ Ahsoka’s last words whispered in the young Mandalorian’s heart before her presence finally disappeared into the infinite rivers that flowed throughout the Galaxy.

Din Djarin stepped forward to what was left behind of the old Togruta, he kneeled down and reached for two items that captured his attention with a look of awe on his face. Vod’ika with curiosity watched from his place, cradled in his father’s arm as Din picked up two bladeless hilts that were clipped to a belt in the pile of white cloth.

“I have seen this before.” he said, more to himself than his son or his younger brother who approached from his left.

“It’s a Lightsaber, they’re commonly used by those who are connected to the Force.” Ben informed Din as he met him in the sand. “Since when have you encountered a Jedi?”

“No Jedi, vod, just a murderous madman. His name was Moff Gideon, and he had a weapon just like this.” Din explained, upon hearing the name, Vod’ika lowered his ears and shuttered with fear. The clan head’s eyes met with Ben’s, “I think I should just show it to you. I have it with me, in the Razor Crest.”

Din glanced over the two hilts in his hand before he asked, “What should I do with these?”

Ben Solo wondered for a moment, and he could not explain why or how, he simply _knew_ as he took the lightsabers from his brother with a calm and gentle hand. “Let me take these, I believe I know who to give them to,” he told Din as he clipped them to his belt. They stood up from the remains of Ahsoka, her robes and her staff, and turned to Boba Fett and his companion.

“Will you come with us?” Ben asked them both.

“Where?” the woman answered his request with an inquiry.

“Mandalore.”

Boba Fett and his company were silent before they looked at each other and returned their gazes to the other Mandalorians with their answer.

“No, our place is here, our _business_ is here. Mandalore abandoned my father and myself decades ago. But if you need an extra warrior or two. We will fight beside you when the time comes.”

“ _Both of you_.” the gray haired woman added in a solemn tone.

Ben and Din watched as the two elders began to turn and make their leave, but Boba Fett stopped for a moment before he turned around and his eyes met Ben. The old man’s eyes narrowed and his lips pursed as he finally recognized the young Mandalorian’s face.

“Solo. I had a mark with that name. He was the only one that lived.” He turned to his companion, “how fitting that his son would wear, of all the armor in the Galaxy, the beskar’gam, wouldn’t you think so, Fennec?” Boba Fett turned to Fennec Shand with a smirk on his face.

One that seemed to reveal pride.

“The galaxy is a strange place, old friend,” Fennec returned the gesture, “maybe you survived the sarlacc pit simply to see this very moment.”

The who elders laughed to themselves softly, they nodded to the Clan Din Djarin, a silent goodbye. But before they turned away and disappeared into the desert, Boba Fett impaled the sand with Rey's staff to leave it behind. Fennec; however, made sure to glance at Ben as she shouldered what used to be his blaster rifle before she turned her back to the Mandalorian. Leaving the Clan of Three to head to the Razor Crest alone.

**

When the three entered the Mandalorian ship, Din placed Vod’ika at a steel table, one that had a small plate with a couple of blue cookies sitting and waiting to be eaten. Without a second thought the child and Ben each grabbed one as Din disappeared towards the back of the ship. The small green being nibbled on his treat as his larger brother placed the whole small thing in his mouth. The cookies were a favorite of Vod’ika’s, even mentioning in a transferred memory through the Force that once small alien ate so many that he got sick while Din was in mid flight. 

The two smiled silently over the memory. But their focus returned to their clan head when he entered the galley of the small ship. In Din’s arms he carried an old maroon linen cloth that was tattered with age. 

The room grew silent when Din took a slow breath, the contents within holding memories of battle and the drive to protect.

“I came into possession of this-- _lightsaber_?”

Ben nodded, urging his brother to continue.

“About twenty-five years ago. Not long after I met Vod’ika.” Din explained as he began to unravel the cloth with slow intent. “I did not know what it was, only that it could cut through _almost_ anything. And I had never seen another, until today.”

What Din Djarin unveiled to Ben stole the younger Mandalorian’s breath and his obsidian eyes grew wide while his mouth hung open with shock. It was a lightsaber hilt, and while most were cylindrical in shape, this one looked more like an actual handle of a blade. The metal’s patina was quite dark, judging by the alloy’s oxidation, this lightsaber had to have been at least three thousand years old.

This was no ordinary lightsaber, this was an ancient Jedi relic of the past. Old Republic era at least. With a slow and quivering hand, Ben reached out for the hilt, feeling with it power and wisdom of the one who crafted it. Seeing in his mind’s eye an armored hand plucking a black kyber crystal from a stalagmite in the frozen crystal mines of Illum.

A hand that was armored in Beksar and leather.

When his fingers wrapped around the rectangular hilt, Ben could see the masked face of a Mandalorian, their black T-visor staring into his black eyes. The warrior spoke to him, in a voice that Ben could not hear but _feel_.

_Motir laam Ad bal tracyn gar kal! Stand up, Son, and fire your blade!_

Ben stepped away from his brothers, the hilt in his hand. His heart pounded in his chest, part of him knew the importance of this weapon in the hands of a Mandalorian and the responsibility they would gain with it in their possession. It all seemed too unreal.

But when Ben Solo pressed the ignition button on the hilt and revealed the black blade that absorbed all the light around it, creating an eclipse around the edges; an event horizon of power and destruction depending on the hands that held it. 

The Mandalorian chuckled to himself with disbelief.

“Din, do you realize how important this is?” Ben whispered to his clan head, “Who you have been for the last two decades?”

The leader of the Clan of Three shook his head, unaware that for the last twenty-five years he was the most important Mandalorian in the Galaxy. Ben exhaled a shuttering breath and tried to hand back the extinguished Darksaber to his brother, the rightful owner of the blade in accordance to the Laws of the Mand’alor. Din stared back and never extended his hand.

“I have no use for such a weapon. But you seem familiar with the sorcery that follows it. It’s yours.”

Ben was bestowed a vision of the last wielders of the blade, for generations the blade passed from Mand’alor to Mand’alor through combat. The previous owner forfeiting the blade only one way; through death.

“No, _no_ , I can’t-- _I won’t_ take this from you!” Ben growled to his brother had he held out the ancient hilt. 

“Why?” Din’s brown eyes were stern and unrelenting.

“Because traditionally--”

“Traditions change, Talyc." Spoke up with conviction, "Ahsoka told me long ago when I first found Vod’ika that I should let go of the tradition I held myself to, and since then I slowly had. Moff Gideon with his last breath said my blood would stain that sword’s blade for it was the destiny of every owner who held it, my Tribe told me to send Vod’ika home to his traditional people at the beginning of my journey. I’m breaking tradition today, just as I had when I hid the sword, and when I disobeyed my family, and when I removed my armor in the presence of others.” 

“Why?” It was now Ben’s turn to question his brother’s stubbornness.

“I followed my heart in those decisions. And it tells me now that I must pass this on to you. Because it is the right thing to do. The sword is yours, I will not accept no for an answer.”

Ben was a man who knew when to pick his battles, especially with the leader of his clan. He lowered his hand and stared at the Darksaber’s hilt. Such an unusual hilt seemed fitting in his hand. Ben sighed again as the weight of everything seemed to push down on his shoulders.

Here in his new life, Ben had ran away from the burden of his name and his lineage; and in accepting his true name years later, he had been given the very relic that deemed its owner the leader of the Mandalorian people. 

Ben; heir of the Skywalker legacy, was now the Mand’alor. 

What was most laughable; however, was that, for the first time, Ben was not afraid. For he did not inherit the Dha’kad because of who he was, but for who he became after casting aside his name and decided to be no one. Only his actions and choices brought him to this moment, and with that realization came a sense of relief.

“Talyc?” Din’s voice brought Ben out of his thoughts. His brother’s furrowed brow indicated a difficult question would soon follow. One that would begin a conversation that Ben was almost excited to finally have. “Why did Ahsoka call you, ‘Skyguy’?”

Ben offered his brother a bashful grin and lowered his eyes. It seemed now was the best time to finally tell his brother the truth of his story.

“The story is long, and kind of boring, but it may be time to come clean and tell you about who I really am.”

“I think the three of us have quite a bit of catching up to do, Talyc.” Din assured his brother, insisting without words that the Clan of Three were together again. And those bonds were only stronger now.

“That’s the thing, Din.” Ben began, hoping his brother and leader would understand and forgive him, “Talyc is...not my real name. I made it up.” Ben confessed to his brother who crossed his arms and leaned back against the walls of the Razor Crest, waiting to hear more.

“My name is Ben Solo, My father is the scoundrel smugger Han, and my mother is Leia Organa of the Resistance.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope Ahsoka and Boba were characterized well. I worked on this as best as I could. The original draft had Ahsoka as a little more gruff, but I feel that after Rebels and the Mandalorian she would be a voice of wisdom and reason. 
> 
> Boba and Fennec was fun to write. I wanted their dynamic to be like old war friends who had been through a lot together.
> 
> Next chapter will have more much needed time for Ben and his found family. As well as Rey’s beginnings of self discovery.


End file.
